WHEREAS, Alice Piper was born on June 7, 1908, in Big Pine, California; and

WHEREAS, Piper attended an Indian day school run by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, which opened during the height of the assimilationist model of Native American education; and

WHEREAS, Late 19th-century California court cases had affirmed the right of local school districts to follow a “separate but equal” doctrine; and

WHEREAS, At that time, California law prohibited Native American children from attending a public school if a separate government-run Indian school was established within three miles of the public school; and

WHEREAS, In August 1923, Piper and six other Native children attempted to attend the Big Pine grammar school and were refused by the school board; and

WHEREAS, Piper, a 15-year-old Paiute pupil, made history in 1924 by successfully suing the Big Pine School District of Inyo County to integrate their classrooms and allow Indigenous pupils to attend their newly built school; and

WHEREAS, The court sided with Piper on the basis that her parents were tax-paying citizens of the United States who had not lived on a reservation; and

WHEREAS, Piper’s successful lawsuit, decided unanimously by the California Supreme Court on June 2, 1924, represented a significant step in school integration in California and the nation; and

WHEREAS, The California Supreme Court case,Piper v. Big Pine Schol Dist. of Inyo County (1924) 193 Cal. 664, (1924) 193 Cal. 664,, case, Piper v. Big Pine School Dist. of Inyo County (1924) 193 Cal. 664, not only changed the treatment of Indigenous pupils in California schools, but also set a precedent that was later cited by the United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) 347 U.S. 483,, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) 347 U.S. 483, which declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional; now, therefore, be it