The Mendez family moved to Westminster California in hopes for a better life and education for their children. When they arrived at the school to be enrolled, Sylvia and her brother were told that they could not attend because they were Mexican and needed to attend the Mexican school. Sylvia did not understand because she and her family were Americans. The Mexican school was in disrepair and inferior to the "white" school. The Mendez family decided to bring a lawsuit against the Westminster School district. Read "Separate is Not Equal" and learn how the Mendez family fought for equality and to end school segregation seven years before the famous Brown v. Board of Education case that ended school segregation in the United States.