San Diego's desegregation case that helped Mexican American students

Zoom in: In 1931, dozens of Mexican American students were shut out of a Lemon Grove elementary school and sent to a separate building.

• Lemon Grove's all-white school board directed the ban, citing "overcrowding, sanitary and moral" conditions, per the Union-Tribune.

Yes, but: The displaced students refused to attend school, and Latino parents sued the district, challenging the board's ban and the separate school for Mexican children.

• Today, a 70-foot mural in Lemon Grove commemorates their victory.

State of play: While the Lemon Grove incident struck down segregation locally, it only applied to the one school district.

• The 1947 Mendez v. Westminster case outlawed school segregation in California and helped set up the Brown case.

Reality check: Decades later, as the share of Latinos in the country has surged, the schools they attend have become much more segregated.

The big picture: The percentage of Latino students attending intensely segregated schools jumped by 67% from 1968 to 2021, although some regions in the country saw even more dramatic shifts.

• California has the highest percentage of Latino students (59%) in intensely segregated schools, according to a UCLA Civil Rights Project analysis of federal data.

What they're saying: Patricia Gándara, co-director of the Civil Rights Project, tells Axios that segregation of Latino children also has gotten worse because some civil rights activists have given up after early gains.

• "It's been radio silence on the part of the advocates and continuous attacks on the part of the critics."