[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 44 (Monday, March 10, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H1060]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING FELICITAS AND GONZALO MENDEZ

  (Mr. GOMEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GOMEZ. Mr. Speaker, Federal courthouses are usually named after 
judges, but history and the law are not just shaped by the judges who 
make the decisions. They are molded by the people who have the courage 
to challenge unjust laws.
  In 1946, Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez joined with the Guzman, 
Palomino, Estrada, and Ramirez families to challenge segregation in 
California public schools and won, which led to California officially 
banning school segregation.
  My bill was signed into law earlier this year to name the Los Angeles 
Federal courthouse in downtown L.A. in honor of Felicitas and Gonzalo 
Mendez, the first Federal courthouse to be named after a Latina, which 
will stand as a monument to the bravery of these families and as a 
reminder that separate is never equal.

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