Downtown Los Angeles is set to put a major piece of civil rights history right on its front steps. On Wednesday, the federal courthouse at 350 W. First Street will be formally named for trailblazing parents and plaintiffs Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez.
Officials plan a ribbon-cutting at 2:30 p.m., followed by a 4 p.m. naming ceremony in the building’s ceremonial courtroom.
According to MyNewsLA, the ribbon-cutting will take place in front of the courthouse, with the 4 p.m. program moving inside to the ceremonial courtroom. The structure will carry the new title of the Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez U.S. Courthouse.
The renaming was authorized by Congress through H.R.5754, which designates the courthouse at 350 W. First Street; the legislation is recorded on Congress.gov. President Biden signed the measure into law in January 2025, according to a press release from Rep. Jimmy Gomez’s office. “I’m proud the president signed into law my bipartisan bill honoring Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez,” Gomez said in that release.
A Legal Legacy That Predates Brown
The Mendez family is being honored for a case that quietly helped rewrite the rules of American education nearly a decade before Brown v. Board of Education.
Their lawsuit challenged state-sanctioned segregation of Mexican American students in Orange County and led to a 1946 federal ruling that California's separate-school policies were unlawful. The Ninth Circuit affirmed that judgment in 1947, and the case drew national attention, including an amicus brief from Thurgood Marshall, as part of the legal groundwork that would later support Brown v. Board of Education, according to the National Park Service.
Why the Renaming Matters
Advocates say putting the Mendez name on a federal courthouse is a long-overdue nod to Latino civil rights leadership in California and across the country.
When the bill was signed, press coverage highlighted that the building would be the first federal courthouse in U.S. history named after a Latina, a milestone Axios summarized at the time.
The courthouse itself is relatively new. The federal building at 350 W. First Street opened in 2016 as the First Street Federal Courthouse and was designed to consolidate downtown federal operations, the General Services Administration says. GSA notes that the facility includes modern courtrooms and upgraded security features. Rep. Gomez’s office has pointed out in its press release that the site sits just blocks from where the original Mendez litigation unfolded, tying the building to the history it now honors.
Local and national civil rights organizations have backed the renaming as a way to keep the Mendez story in front of younger generations. Groups including UnidosUS submitted letters of support during the legislative process. UnidosUS has emphasized the symbolic weight of putting the family’s name on a federal building.
With Wednesday’s dedication, the Mendez family’s fight against school segregation will not just live in casebooks and archives. It will be etched into the identity of one of downtown LA’s most visible federal institutions, a daily reminder that a local lawsuit helped change schooling in California and across the country.
