Lemon Grove Incident

Class Date: April 29th

Location: Your couch! See your weekly e-mail for Zoom link!

Heading to the West Coast

This week we are talking about what is known as the “Lemon Grove Incident”, or one of the first successful school integration cases in the United States. Before we talk about our backyard civil rights case, let’s review some relevant history, including California history and civil rights events:

9,000-19,000 years ago

Native peoples populated the California region. Much of the region lacked sufficient rainfall to support widespread agriculture, so tribes generally practiced hunting/gathering to sustain themselves. Though bands and tribes remained relatively small, the Native population in the California region boasted the highest indigenous population north of Mexico. Some scholars estimate that as much as ⅓ of the native population of the future United States resided in California.

For a really great overview of the history of Native California, check out this 13 minute video here:

1542 - Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sees California

Spanish navigator Cabrillo sails along the coast of California, noting the native population (possibly around 130,000 at the time). The Spanish did little in the area for the next century or so, due to reports of ‘poverty’ in the area and a general slowdown in Spanish exploration.

1602 - Sebastian Vizcaino sails up from Mexico

A merchant, Vizcaino sailed along the Southern California coast, making rough maps of the area and naming San Diego, Santa Catalina Island, Santa Barbara, and Monterey. Because of map inaccuracies, Vizcaino and later explorers believe that California was an island.

1769 - Father Junipero Serra establishes the first mission in California

The Spanish were eager to begin settling what they named ‘Alta California’ and convert the Natives to Christianity. Russian and English explorers had continued to make contact in California and Spain was eager to stake a more decisive claim on the area.

Though the California mission period has long been romanticized in California history, many have sought in recent decades to tell a more balanced story of the time period.

For an alternative view of the mission system and its effects on the native populations, see this 23-minute video put together by a tribal organization.

1811 - Contract for the Cumberland Road is assigned

The Cumberland Road is an important route for westward expansion, moving through the Allegheny Mountain range. The road had been approved by Thomas Jefferson as the first federal highway in 1806. Later called the National Road, it traveled 128 miles from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, West Virginia. It is known as Route 40 today.

1812 - War of 1812 begins

President Madison asks Congress to declare war on Great Britain. The majority of the battles are fought at sea, as the conflict largely centers around British violations of U.S. maritime rights. The war was brought to an end two years later with the Treaty of Ghent.

1821 - Mexican Independence

The California region had been ruled by Spain from afar, largely through the presidio and mission system. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, gaining control over formerly Spanish territory, including the California region.

To see a quick and simple overview of how independence affected the region, watch this 3-minute video here:

1823 - Monroe Doctrine announced

President Monroe establishes his Doctrine, declaring that America would remain neutral in future European wars. The Doctrine also denounced European intervention anywhere in the Americas.

1827 - Treaty of Limits is ratified by the U.S. Senate

The treaty establishes the Sabine River as the official border between Mexico and the United States, per the agreement laid out in the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819.

1870 - Congress grants citizenship to “aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent”

The 14th Amendment granted birthright citizenship to all those born in the United States, but did not extend to those already here. in an Act of Congress, they extended citizenship to African Americans, but not other non-white persons, effectively excluding Asian immigrants from naturalized citizenship avenues.

March 1918

Bilingual American women are recruited to serve as telephone operators for the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Europe on the Western front.

The women, sometimes somewhat derisively known as ‘hello girls’, became known for their bravery and focus under pressure.

1920 - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) founded

Largely in response to the “Palmer Raids” of 1919 and 1920, lawyer Roger Nash, helped to form the present day ACLU. Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer began conducting federal raids of suspected ‘radical leftists’ as fear of Communism and Bolsheviks gripped the nation. Thousands of people were arrested without warrant and were often held in custody with no charges or evidence. To read more about the start of the ACLU, click here: https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/aclu

1922 - Rose Bowl Stadium is built in Pasadena, CA

The Rose Bowl was completed to host college football games. In its 100 year history, it has hosted 5 Super Bowls, 2 Summer Olympic gold medal matches, 2 FIFA World Cup Finals, countless concerts, and the annual Rose Bowl college football game. In 2019, Sports Illustrated declared the Rose Bowl to be the Greatest Stadium in College Football History. The very next year, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum finished construction, also hosting Olympic games, Super Bowls, and even a Papal Mass!

1924 - Native Americans designated as citizens

Congress passes legislation designating all Native Americans born within the territory of the United States as citizens.

1924 - The Mulholland Highway completed

The road along the ridge of the Santa Monica mountains and Hollywood Hills opens for drivers to twist and turn along while taking in one of America’s most beautiful drives.

That is where our timeline leaves us for this week! Check below for additional reading resources and tune in this week to learn more about the Lemon Grove Incident.

Recommended Reading

To read more about this topic, here are some great books to get you started:

For kids:

Todos Iguales: All Equal, a Ballad of Lemon Grove by Christy Hale
Todos Iguales / All Equal: Un Corrido de / A Ballad of Lemon Grove is a history book written for school children. It describes the events of January-March 1931 when Mexican American residents of Lemon Grove — mostly immigrants and their children — many of whom were American born citizens — rose up to protest the exclusion of some 75 Mexican American children from the lone grammar school where previously all children attended as equals.

Parents organized a boycott of the newly created but inferior school for Mexican American children. They sought legal representation and sued the school board. A bright student, twelve-year-old Roberto Alvarez (born in La Mesa, California), was selected as the lead plaintiff in the case, Roberto Alvarez vs the Board of Trustees of the Lemon Grove School District. It took less than three months for the court to rule the school board’s action illegal.

A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez by Maria Dolores Aguila
WHEN INJUSTICE GROWS, RESISTANCE BLOOMS.
Twelve-year-old Roberto Alvarez is the youngest of his siblings, born on United States soil. He’s el futuro, their dream for a life away from the fire of the Mexican Revolution.
Moved by anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican propaganda, the Lemon Grove school board and chamber of commerce create a separate “Americanization” school for the Mexican children attending the Lemon Grove Grammar School. But the new Olive Street School is an old barn retrofitted for the children forced to attend a segregated school.
Amid threats of deportation, the Comité de Vecinos risk everything to stand their ground and, with the support of the Mexican Consulate, choose Roberto as the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the school board in this vivid and uplifting novel in verse based on true events.
From award-winning author María Dolores Águila (Barrio Rising) comes an inspiring novel in verse set against the backdrop of the Great Depression and Mexican Repatriation, based on the true story of the United States' first successful school desegregation case, two decades before Brown v. Board of Education ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

For adults:

Lemon Grove by Helen Offield, Pete Smith, and the Lemon Grove Historical Society

Lemon Grove dates to 1892 when it first appeared in the San Diego County records as "Lemon Grove." The tiny, whistle-stop town emerged during the "second gold rush," the rise of California's citrus industry, which was facilitated by the 1849 Gold Rush, the break up of the Mexican ranchos in Alta California, and the advent of statehood for California in 1850. Land speculators poured into California, lured by the exquisite climate, five growing seasons, and the possibilities for success in agriculture and business. Lemon Grove became home to gentlemen farmers from the East and Midwest, whose descendants live on in the community to this day.

In Defense of La Raza: The Los Angeles Mexican Consulate and the Mexican Community, 1029 to 1936 by Francisco E. Balderrama

Mexican communities in the United States faced more than unemployment during the Great Depression. Discrimination against Mexican nationals and similar prejudices against Mexican Americans led the communities to seek help from Mexican consulates, which in most cases rose to their defense.

Los Angeles’s consulate was confronted with the country’s largest concentration of Mexican Americans, for whom the consuls often assumed a position of community leadership. Whether helping the unemployed secure repatriation and relief or intervening in labor disputes, consuls uniquely adapted their roles in international diplomacy to the demands of local affairs. You can read it for free here: https://open.uapress.arizona.edu/projects/in-defense-of-la-raza

Works Cited

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_California

https://www.britannica.com/place/California-state/History

https://cal170.library.ca.gov/november-4-1841-first-wagon-train-arrives/

https://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1810.html

https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393634167

https://www.discoverlosangeles.com/things-to-do/historical-timeline-of-los-angeles

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