SYLVIA MENDEZ addressing the Westminster City Council in 2018 (OC Tribune photo).

Will Westminster be taking action to make another street name change to honor a prominent person?

On Wednesday, the city council will consider a proposal from Councilmember Amy Phan West to replace the street name signage at the intersection of Main Street and Goldenwest Street at the entrance to Westminster High School in homage to civil rights pioneer Sylvia Mendez.

The name change would be to “Sylvia Mendez Way.”

That proposal comes on the heels of a decision by the council to “redesignate” the All American Way in the Civic Center area of the city to “Charlie Kirk Way” in honor of the controversial conservative activist Charlie Kirk who was fatally shot on Sept. 10, 2025.

Mendez was 8-years-old when her parents successfully sued on her behalf of her right to attend the “white” school in Westminster in 1946.

At that time, several public schools in Orange County – and many others in California – segregated pupils of Mexican heritage into a “Mexican” campus.

A case was brought in federal court and Mendez v. Westminster prevailed there and in higher courts. After the final appeal, Gov. Earl Warren moved to desegregate all public schools and public spaces in the state.

That case was used as a precedent in the 1954 Supreme Court calandmark case of Brown vs. Board of Education which banned segregation in all public schools in the U.S., a ruling which is considered a key turning point in the civil rights movement.

The council will meet in closed session at 4 p.m. and in open session at 6 p.m. at 8200 Westminster Blvd.