A $1.5 million check was given to the City of Westminster, California, Oct. 19 by state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) Oct. 19 that will allow for the completion of the Mendez Freedom Trail in honor of a 1940’s civil rights case that desegregated California public schools. In the 1940s, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez attempted to send their children to 17th Street School, which was designated for white children. The Mendez family—who were U.S. citizens and Westminster residents, but were of Hispanic descent—were denied entry and instructed to send their children to Hoover Elementary instead. The denial of the Mendez’s into the white-only school prompted them and other families of Mexican descent to challenge the segregation in court—where a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the families in 1947—with the decision helping to end segregation of California schools. The win paved way to the more well-known …