Mendez v. Westminster was a landmark court case in 1946 that challenged the segregation of Mexican American students in California schools. The case was brought by a group of parents, including Gonzalo Mendez, who sought to end the practice of placing their children in separate schools designated for Mexican Americans, arguing it violated their rights. The ruling by the U.S. District Court in favor of the Mendez family declared that school segregation based on ethnicity was unconstitutional. This decision was significant as it laid the groundwork for future civil rights cases, including the famous Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which addressed racial segregation in schools nationwide.