100 Americans Making Constitutional History: A Biographical History presents 100 profiles of the key people behind some of the most important U.S. Supreme Court cases. Edited by Melvin I. Urofsky, a respected constitutional historian, each 2,000-word profile delves into the social and political context behind landmark Court decisions. For example, while a case like Brown v. Board of Education is about an important idea—the equal protection of the law—at its heart it is the story of a little girl, Linda Brown, who wanted to go to a decent school near her home. The outcome is accessible and objective “stories” about the individuals—heroes and scoundrels—who fought their way to constitutional history.

Demetrio Rodriguez

Demetrio Rodriguez

The Battle over School Funding

“We didn't have the Education”

Rodriguez v. San Antonio Independent School District 411 U.S. 1 (1973)

Demetrio Rodriguez has lived for almost fifty years in the same white frame house on Sylvia Street in San Antonio. When he first moved in, the street had no sidewalks or drainage, and roosters crowed in the yards of most of his neighbors. Sylvia Street is in the heart of the Hispanic barrio in southwest San Antonio, just a few miles from Kelly Air Force Base, where Rodriguez was employed for thirty years as a sheet-metal worker. Sylvia Street is also located in the Edgewood school district, where his daughter and four sons walked to their elementary school. The school was in such bad shape ...

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