Siblings Win Statewide History Contest with help from Lemon Grove Historical Society’s own Sarah Lewis
By William and Sarah G., LGHS members and guest columnists for the Lemon Tree
excerpt from The Lemon Tree, summer 2024 vol 22, No 1. – LGHS’s quarterly newsletter
Hi Viewers! We are William G. and Sarah G., 10th and 11th grade students at Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego. We made a documentary as part of the National History Day competition, where students in elementary, middle and high school conduct historical research and present projects related to a theme. This year’s theme was Turning Points in History.
We went to the Parsonage Museum in Lemon Grove to find a “turning point’. Luckily, Sarah Lewis was on duty. She is the Board Treasurer and archives expert for the Lemon Grove Historical Society, who showed us print and photographic materials, and a video interview with a participant of the 1931 segregation case in Lemon Grove, Alvarez vs. Lemon School Board of Trustees. Our video documentary is about this turning point in history when Mexican Americans went to court and won. Creating the video was fun and educational technically and historically. The case is an often overlooked, yet pivotal event in American history that is now recognized as one of the first successful school desegregation cases in America.
We were actually able to visit Lemon Grove and the Historical Society as part of our research and even enjoy the local food! There is a beautiful mural by Mario Chacon about the case on Broadway, right next to “Body by Discipline” On September 7th at 7pm we will show our video and discuss our documentary production process as part of the “History ALIVE Lecture Series” at the Lee House Cultural Center (click here for more details) And Lucky for us, Robert Stuckey, LGHS’s videographer-in-residence and an SDSU film graduate, will videotape the whole thing. See you there! And Mrs. Lewis – many thanks!
For more information, visit www.lghistorical.org or call the museum, 619-460-4353.
