One of the first successful legal challenges to school segregation happened in Lemon Grove 94 years ago, and an upcoming event aims to shed light on the historic decision.
On March 30, 1931, Superior Court Judge Claude Chambers handed down a decision that the Lemon Grove School Board was wrong to create a separate elementary school for Mexican American students, an early victory against school segregation.
It would be another 23 years before the Supreme Court would make a similar decision in Brown v. Board of Education, ending school segregation nationally. That landmark decision overshadows Roberto Alvarez v. Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District, but the local case may have given inspiration to families standing up for equality in education.
Roberto Alvarez Jr., a Jamul resident whose father was the original plaintiff in the Lemon Grove case, was the first to bring the case to the public’s attention through his research and a 1985 KPBS documentary, “The Lemon Grove Incident.”
Alvarez has continued his research, and in the past couple of years he found that the Lemon Grove case was not the first of its kind in the nation as he originally thought. That distinction goes to a 1917 case in Colorado.
He also found that the Lemon Grove case likely had an impact on the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County, which ended school segregation in California, and paved the way for the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
“I think that people there were aware of the Lemon Grove incident,” Alvarez said, noting that the largest Spanish-language newspaper in Los Angeles had written about the case. “There was a lot of communication between Mexican communities during that period of time. Even though there’s not a direct link, my best educated guess is there was knowledge of the case.”
Alvarez said Latino communities knew what was happening in other cities, which helped spark a social movement toward rights and equality.
In Lemon Grove, the case stemmed from a decision the school board made to address overcrowding at the elementary school. During winter break, without parents’ knowledge, they built another school specifically for Latino students.
The original school was nicknamed the Castle because of its looks. The school for Latino students was called the Barn.
Parents learned of the plan, organized and refused to let their children go to the new school. Although his own father was chosen as the plaintiff, Alvarez didn’t know about the case or his family’s connection until researching the subject of immigration as a student at Stanford University.
A 70-foot-long mural depicting the Lemon Grove decision was painted by artist Mario Chacon in 2021 on the exterior wall of the Welcome Home Boutique, a shop that raised money for refugees.
The shop has closed and the building is vacant, but soon will be the new home of Grace Communion Lemon Grove.
Pastor Anne Stapleton at the church said she saw an opportunity to celebrate the Lemon Grove case because of the mural in the courtyard between the church’s new home and the gym Body by Discipline, and she approached Lemon Grove city officials with the idea.
She spoke before the City Council at their March 18 meeting, when the council officially declared March 30 as Lemon Grove Incident Day.
A celebration with music from the 1930s and food provided by Tortillas de Lola is planned for 1 p.m. Sunday in the courtyard at 7963 Broadway.
Stapleton said she hopes to make the recognition a monthlong event for the 95th anniversary of the decision.
“It’s a big part of our history, so we’re gonna do it up real big next year,” she said. “I’m working with the city manager and the library at the school and the Historical Society to make it a bigger deal.”
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