Lemon Grove Case Study

The Lemon Grove Incident In 1930 school segregation would disturb the peace between the interracial Mexican and Anglo Community of Lemon Grove, California. On July 23, 1930 the Lemon Grove School Board began to discuss a PTA request. The Parent Teachers Association had requested the segregation of Mexican American grammar students from Anglo students on account of overcrowding, educational differences, and a deterioration of sanitation and morals. The School board appealed to build a separate school for Mexicans students without the consent or notification of their parents. The event caused a series of problems for the community resulting in the Roberto Alvarez vs. the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District case in 1931. This
San Diego Judge Claude Chamber was appointed to hear the case. Ten principal witnesses took the stand among those were students, the school board, and the school staff. The school board argued that the new school was built in the interest of the Mexican students in mind. In order to better accommodate sufficient space and special attention to the Mexican students a separate school was built just for them. The school had also been built on the northerly section of the town which mainly Mexican families occupied. The students had to cross the main boulevard and the railroad to get to school; it was supposedly built in this region to ensure the safety of their students. The purpose of instituting this Americanized school was to help remedial students learn English and American customs by depriving them of Anglo interaction. A teacher claimed that, “most of these children come from homes where ignorance and poverty prevailed….since health and sanitation is problems in their home it’s only natural that they have difficulty concentrating on school.” Noon argued that most of the students were United States citizens who spoke English. There was even a student who still had to attend the new school for remedial education who did not speak Spanish. American students who lived on the other side of the main boulevard and railroad were not expected to attend the new school for safety reasons either. The final argument that convinced the judge to oppose the segregation was the belief that Mexicans pupils needed the socialization of American students in order to learn the English language and customs. White children are not segregated because they are behind they are only held back a year, ironically because most of those children were born in the U.S. they were technically Caucasian, under law Caucasian could not legally be segregated from other Caucasians. On March 10, 1931 the students were legally entitled to the same