Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient: Sylvia Mendez

Sylvia Mendez was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama on February 15, 2011. This video of Mendez was created by the Obama White House to mark the occasion and highlight Mendez's activism and role in the landmark case Mendez v. Westminster School District.

The original description reads: Sylvia Mendez is a civil rights activist of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, who is famous for the integral role she played in Mendez v. Westminster. As an eight year old, her parents attempted to enroll Ms. Mendez in the Westminster school. She was denied entry in the "whites" only school and was told to go to the school for Mexican children. On February 18, 1946, Judge Paul McCormick ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and a year later the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court ruling. The Mendez case effectively ended segregation as a matter of law in California. Justice Marshall, who represented the NAACP as amicus in the appellate case, used many of the same arguments years later in Brown v. Board of Education. She currently travels around the country giving speeches on the value of a good education. She is held in high esteem by many education groups and the US Postal Service unveiled a stamp in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the landmark case.

Transcript

Sylvia Mendez: What inspired me was that my parents fought for me when I was very young.

And what they did was, they wanted me to know that I was an individual and I was just -- that we're all individuals, that we're all human beings and that we're all connected together and that we all have the same rights; the same freedom.

And my mother was the one that asked me to go around the country and talk about Mendez verses Westminster to show everybody about our history of the United States because we weren't included.

I love to talk to students.

The thing that I tell them is, that we live in this wonderful, wonderful country of ours where we have so many opportunities and I am so sad, I tell them, that you are not taking advantage of them, because so many students are dropping out of high school, and they’re not even going to high school, college -- and I want them to fulfill their destiny; to dream the dream that I am living.

Right now, I'm living the American dream and it's possible for everybody in this nation to dream that dream and to fulfill it like I have.

Being honored today, it means that my parents are being honored, my mother and father, and I feel their spirit here today for what they did, for what they accomplished when they fought for integration.

So, it means so much.

It means so much for the Latino families, the Latino community, that they know that.

What I want to say is, I am so grateful because with this honor, the Latino community will find out about Mendez; how the Latinos have always been fighting for integration; how they have always fight for individuality; how they have always been so passionate, so brave, so courageous, and I think, with my receiving this honor, I think that it will influence so many students, because that's what I do.

I go around talking to students about the possibilities in this great nation of us.

It means so much -- I could just go on and on about how much it means and I'm so, so honored that President Obama has given me this.