Question

How did Sylvia Mendez help expand civil rights? A. She supported same-sex marriage by participating in the reading of a play.

Answer 1

As a child, she testified in a court case that helped end school segregation.

Answer 2

The correct answer is D.

Sylvia Mendez is an American writer and civil rights activist of Mexican-Puerto Rican heritage.

At the age of eight, she played an important role in the Mendez v. Westminster case which was a landmark desegregation case of 1946.

When she was growing up in California, Hispanics were not allowed to attend Whites only schools. Mendez was sent to a so called Mexican school, a decision her parents opposed. They filed a law suit in the local federal court. Sylvia Mendez was asked to prove she could speak and understand the English language.

Their case was a success and it paved way to the end of racial segregation of schools in the United States.