Mexican-American rights activist dead at 91

John Gonzales died of natural causes on Wednesday, December 6, at his home in Dana Point, California. He was the founding president of the Los Angeles council of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and in the 1940s helped organize LULAC councils throughout California. Early in 1945, as the organization's vice president general, Gonzalez helped organize a class-action lawsuit against four Orange County school districts forcing Mexican children to attend schools separate from whites. The case was Mendez vs. Westminster School District of Orange County and it led to the end of segregation in California schools on April 14, 1947. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision declared the racial segregation of public schools in America unconstitutional. Gonzalez was 91.

Sources: mendezvwestminster.com, Yahoo! News, Lulac.org, brownvboard.org