Todos Iguales: Un Corrido De Lemon Grove = All Equal : a Ballad of Lemon Grove, a Spanish language children’s book.Generations United, a 1994 film about Our Lady of Guadalupe school in Topeka.Census Bureau Quick Facts)Ĭheck out books and movies from the library The current population of Shawnee County includes 13.4 percent of people who identify as Hispanic or Latino. You can continue to learn more with library resources and online resources. This group, which still exists, later added a dance troupe. In 1990 Newton, Kansas, high school students formed the Azteca Spanish Club to celebrate their culture and heritage. High school students held walk outs to protest the treatment of their groups. In the 1960s there were student-led resistance protests across the country. Eventually the students were allowed to attend the public high school, although only three of the students chose to go. The governor said it was a matter for the Kansas Department of Education, who said it was a matter for the local school district. When a Kansas City district refused to allow four Mexican high school students, all proficient English speakers, to attend and integrate a public school, parents contacted the Mexican Consul who responded in a telegram to the Kansas governor asking for help. Our Lady of Guadalupe School, staffed by Sisters of Charity, Leavenworth, Kansas, taught Mexican children. Topeka’s Branner Elementary School had an annex, which was not as nice as the White School, for Mexican children. Mendoza shared several stories about schools in Topeka and Kansas City. She continued her presentation using photos documenting the plight of Mexican and Mexican Americans seeking equality in Kansas and the Midwest, mainly in the past 100 years, including depictions of segregation with drinking fountains and in movie theaters. If they wanted to swim in the city pool, they could only swim on the day before the pool would be emptied. At restaurants in Kansas they had to choose “take out” and pick it up at the back door because they weren’t allowed inside. She then described what her own grandparents experienced.

Mendoza began by asking what we imagine when we think about the word segregation.

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