Alice Piper

Alice Piper (7 June 1908 – 22 August 1985) was a Paiute (Nuwuvi) girl residing in Big Pine, California who petitioned to attend the newly built Big Pine High School in 1923 and was denied entry due to her race. At that time, California educational 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.

Alice Piper along with six other Indian children sued the district for the right to attend. Piper sued on the grounds that her 14th Amendment rights had been violated knowing full well that she was not receiving the same education that the newly built public school afforded. The local Indian day school only offered education up to the 5th grade level, was underfunded, and lacked many basic resources. Furthermore, the District trustees had previously agreed to allow Indian students to attend the school if their parents voted for a measure that would fund the construction of the school. Although the measure passed, the board of trustees did not honor their agreement.

As a local resident recalled, "It was an exciting morning when the request was made, all the mothers and fathers of children of school age, Indian and white, were on the street to hear the answer of the district trustees. When the request was denied, the Indians immediately took court action pressing their case in the name of Alice Piper, a beautiful, intelligent, Indian girl." The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled in her favor in the case Piper v. Big Pine (1924), thus opening the door for herself and other Native American children to attend public schools in the state of California.

Piper’s court victory became a turning point in the struggle for Native American education and ended the practice of sending Indian children who qualified for public school to separate government-run Indian day schools. Piper v. Big Pine was later cited by Chief Justice Warren as a precedent in the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ruling that ended the practice of segregated schools in the United States.

Alice Piper stands as an early civil rights hero who championed equal educational opportunities for Native Americans, opening the door for equal access to education for all children regardless of race. Says Ada Wardle Robinson, the Inyo County Superintendent who held the office years after the Piper case decision had been handed down, "And as each year as both eighth grade and high school students graduate, we are reminded that the development of our youthful citizens is not confined to the white race and we are thankful to those Indians who years ago insisted that their children be given an equal chance."

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