Page 7 Foothills Sentry APRIL 2025 Your legacy begins here From Blueprint to Spotlight May 8, 2025 6pm-10pm Hotel Fera 100 The City Dr S, Orange, CA 92868 Annual Gala All proceeds will go toward GOCAT’s mission to engage and enhance our community through the arts by creating a vibrant, transformative, and diverse culture of teaching, learning, and performing opportunities. Local school desegregation hero is closer to getting his due By Tina Richards El Modena community leader Sammy Rodriquez is infuriated that the historical record of the landmark Mendez, et al vs. Westminster court case that desegregated schools in California in 1947, is all about Gonzolo Mendez and the “et als” are barely a footnote. He is particularly aggrieved because one of the et als, Lorenzo Ramirez, was living in El Modena at the time, and his participation in the lawsuit was focused on segregated schools in Orange. Lorenzo Ramirez is a local hero, Rodriquez says, and should be recognized and remembered for his courage, not forgotten. He, along with William Guzman and Thomas Estrada from Santa Ana and Frank Palomino of Garden Grove, are the et als that history is ignoring. Libraries a start Working with members of the Ramirez family and several other supporters from El Modena, Rodriquez encouraged Santiago Community College (SCC) to name its library after Lorenzo Ramirez and place a bust of him in front of it. The group also asked the Orange Unified School District to name a school after Ramirez, but settled for the El Modena High School library as a namesake. His mission to immortalize Ramirez is, he says, far from over. That’s why he was delighted when Dr. Stephen Glass, a trustee on the OUSD school board and a Distinguished Faculty in Residence in the educational leadership department at Cal State Long Beach, asked him to give a talk on Ramirez to his doctoral students. Rodriquez, himself a former professor of ethnic studies, said yes, but only if the class would meet at the Lorenzo Ramirez Library at El Modena High. Which they did on Saturday, March 15. Reaching the next generation The group of 12 doctoral candidates were joined by 13 ElMo students, Principal Bob King and City Councilwoman Ana Gutierrez, whose District 5 includes the El Modena barrio. Glass’ educational leadership students, each pursuing areas of study designed to enhance the depth, scope and relevance of public education, were a receptive audience. Rodriquez made his point about the community’s ignorance of the role Lorenzo Ramirez played in school desegregation in California, years before Brown vs. Board of Education ended school segregation nationwide, by asking the ElMo students if they knew who the library was named after. Only one did. He asked them if they had been taught about Ramirez in elementary or middle school. OUSD says it covers Ramirez and the court case in fifth and eighth grades, but none of the students remembered it. Ana Gutierrez, who grew up in El Modena, told the group that as a child, she played with the nieces and nephews of Ramirez, but she had no idea who he was. More than Mendez "It’s always been about Mendez and the Mendez family,” Rodriquez said. “When the court case is discussed, its Mendez vs. Westminster. Even Santa Ana named a school after Mendez, ignoring its own Guzman Family.” It’s up to us, he told the soonto-be Ph.Ds, to make sure that history is accurately portrayed, that all the players are recognized. On the local level, learning about Ramirez’s specific role in the court case opens a window into Orange’s history. He recalled the days when Mexican kids went to Lincoln School and white Doctoral candidates, ElMo students, squeezed together with Sammy Rodriguez, Stephen Glass, Ana Gutierrez and community members for a group shot following the March 15 presentation. Dr. Steven Glass welcomes his students to the presentation. Sammy Rodriguez makes the case for the legacy of Lorenzo Ramirez. kids attended Roosevelt, just 120 yards away. At that time, Mexican kids were not expected to continue school past the eighth grade; they were expected to be farm workers. According to El Modena residents who remember those days, educational opportunities were far from equal. Lorenzo Ramirez wanted more for his children and went to court to get it. Rodriquez reported on the ups and downs of the drive by locals to get recognition for Lorenzo Ramirez. He called out SCC when it hosted a speaker who extolled the Mendez court case without mentioning Ramirez, even though the name on the campus library and the bust of the man were in plain sight. The Ramirez family was hurt by the omission and let the college know. Years later, both the family and Rodriquez received a letter of apology from the SCC chancellor. Gathering momentum He’s also asked OUSD why its 2011 promise to recognize March 2 as a day to celebrate Ramirez has been ignored. The district is looking into it. He has recently enlisted the aid of Councilwoman Gutierrez and Trustee Stephen Glass to name an OUSD school after Ramirez. The library is not enough, he says. Gutierrez is also encouraging the city to erect a commemorative plaque honoring Ramirez at the site where the Lincoln and Roosevelt schoolhouses stood. “Orange should be proud that the roots of school desegregation were planted here,” she says. “Lorenzo Ramirez got together with five others to sue local school districts,” Rodriquez summarizes. “Mendez’s name was used when the case was filed, but that shouldn’t lessen the contributions of the et als, especially, in Orange, Lorenzo Ramirez.” Photos by Tony Richards
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjA1MjUy