The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) has announced that it will present the Medallion Award at its annual Awards Gala. The award is CHCI’s highest accolade for Hispanic role models whose careers, leadership, and service contribute to the development of American society.
According to the CHCI citation, Sylvia Mendez is the recipient of the 2021 American Dream Medallion in Education, Science, Medicine, or Civil Rights Award.
Mendez’s parents were plaintiffs in the landmark Mendez v. Westminster School District (1947) case that paved the way for Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and ended school segregation in California.
When Sylvia was in the third grade, she and her brothers, Gonzalo, Jr., and Jerome, were denied admission to the “white” school near their Westminster home. The Mendez family, along with four other Latino families, fought to integrate the school. Mendez won in federal court in 1946, then again in appeal in 1947, and helped make California the first state in the nation to end school segregation.
Seven years later, Mendez served as a significant precedent for the NAACP in its Supreme Court school desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education.
Miss Mendez and her family have received numerous awards and recognitions, including a US Postage stamp commemorating the 60th anniversary of the appellate victory; a Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the National Parent Teacher Association; and the US Congress Civil Rights Champion Award. On February 15, 2011, President Barack Obama presented Sylvia Mendez with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
In 2014, Miss Mendez was the guest speaker at the “In Conversation with… Education for All – The Sylvia Mendez Story” program held during Hispanic Heritage Month. The event was sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C. (USDA photo by Bob Nichols).
America Ferrera is the recipient of the 2021 Medallion of Excellence in the Arts, Entertainment, Media, Music, or Sports Award. Ferrera recently launched Poderistas alongside Eva Longoria Bastón and other Latina leaders. Poderistas is a digital lifestyle community and non-profit built to inspire, affirm, and inform Latinas so they can leverage their power to transform their lives, their families, their community, and their nation.
The awards gala is the culmination of CHCI’s Leadership Conference in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
In alignment with the theme for 2021, Presente: Latinos Leading the Way, the CHCI Leadership Conference will welcome a virtual line-up of national leaders, elected officials, policymakers, and influencers recognized for their influence across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
Attendance at the conference and gala is free but registration is required at https://chci.events/2021hhm.
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