Without Separation: Prejudice, Segregations, and the Case of Roberto Alvarez

Written by Larry Dane Brimner and Maya Gonzalez

Narrated by Christopher Salazar

Roberto Alvarez’s world changed the day he could no longer attend Lemon Grove Grammar School in the small, rural community where he lived near San Diego, California. He and the other Mexican American students were told they had to go
to a new, separate school on Olive Street. A school just for them. A school where they would not hold back the other students.

But Roberto and the Mexican American students and their families believed the new school’s real purpose was to segregate, to separate. They didn’t think that was right, or just, or legal. Would they win their fight to continue attending the
five-room school Roberto and the others loved, or would the court order them to attend the new school?

Acclaimed nonfiction author Larry Dane Brimner follows Roberto and the other Mexican American families on their journey in 1931 as they battle against separation and prejudice in one of America’s landmark segregation cases.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781705068557

Reviews for Without Separation

[librarianryan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What an interesting read. Most students know or learn about segregated schools in the South. Ruby Bridges is a heroic name. But this reader had never heard about schools trying to segregate in California, in order to keep the mexican school children away from the white ones. The reason the school board gave was a language barrier, which a lawsuit named for Roberto Alverez proved was intentional racism. This was a wonderful story and the illustrations are fitting and feel like California in the 1930s.