(Photo: Public Domain)

Thanks to one father's fight, African-Americans in Visalia, California, were able to enroll in all public schools as of March 1, 1890.

Before this, Visalia, located 190 miles north of Los Angeles and 230 miles southeast of San Francisco, only admitted white students in its public schools.

When Edmond Wysinger brought his son, Arthur, to enroll in Visalia High School on Oct. 1, 1888, he was sent away by a teacher who told him to take his son to a colored school.

Wysinger hired attorneys and filed a writ of mandate on behalf of his son, on Oct. 2, 1888, challenging the public institution for denying his son an education based on race, color or nationality.

It was first denied, and he then filed an appeal to the Supreme Court of California, who then reversed the order and granted his admission into the school. 

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