To understand why five California families took their fight against segregated schools to court in the 1940s, picture the buildings reserved for their children’s learning.

At that time in rural Orange County, just south of Los Angeles, school officials ordered Mexican-American children into environments that weren’t designed for education. Their studies took place in converted cattle sheds or horse stables covered in dirt and reeking of manure. Instead of new textbooks with glossy pages and fresh ink, they learned from the torn and tattered primers White schools had discarded.

Outraged by the prospect of their children continuing their education in ramshackle schoolhouses, five families — the Mendezes, Ramirezes, Guzmans, Estradas and Palominos — decided to act.