 Sylvia Mendez

Sylvia Mendez (born June 7, 1936) is an American civil rights activist of Mexican-Puerto Rican heritage.At age eight, she played an instrumental role in the "Mendez v. Westminster" case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946.The case successfully ended "de jure" segregation in California and paved the way for integration and the American civil rights movement.