United States Post Office and Court House (Court House for the Central District of California) National Historic Landmark Nomination
Salvatore SC. 2012. United States Post Office and Court House (Court House for the Central District of California) National Historic Landmark Nomination. National Historic Landmark Nominations. 06000001_NHL. National Park Service. Washington, DC
This document is the National Historic Landmark (NHL) nomination for the United States Post Office and Court House (Court House for the Central District of California) in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California. The NHL nomination for the court house documents its national significance under NHL Criterion 1 as an exceptionally important site in the history of postwar American school desegregation efforts and of the civil rights of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Southwest. The 1946 decision by the US federal court in Mendez v. Westminster, a lawsuit filed by five Latino families whose children were denied admission to Anglo public schools in Southern California, was the first to declare that the doctrine of “separate but equal” ran counter to American law. The decision marked a turning point in the legal struggle against segregation in primary education and served as a precedent for striking down segregation for Mexican Americans in the Southwest. The period of national significance is 1945-1946.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Salvatore, Susan
- Date of Issue
- 2012-10-16
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Keywords
- California, civil rights, desegregation, education, law, Los Angeles, Mexican American, National Historic Landmark, segregation