Mae Willie Lumpkin and family, Oral history interview on 1970s Lumpkin school desegregation case (2014)
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@ Trinity College, Hartford, CT
Description
Mae Willie Lumpkin describes her role as the lead plaintiff in the 1970 Lumpkin v Dempsey school desegregation case in federal court, which charged that Connecticut school district laws blocked the racial integration of students in the City of Hartford and its suburbs, thereby violating their constitutional rights to equal educational opportunity. Although the 1974 US Supreme Court ruling in Milliken derailed this Hartford case, it provided a foundation for the 1990s Sheff v O'Neill litigation in state court. Ms. Lumpkin's children also offer their memories of growing up in the Stowe Village public housing project and attending Barbour Elementary School, Fox Middle School, and Weaver High School, as well as later generations of the family who attended suburban schools through the Project Concern integration program (later named Open Choice). Additional interviewees include daughter Geraldine Lumpkin Norman, daughter Cheryl Lumpkin Samuels, son Anthony Lumpkin, son Kenyetta Lumpkin, son Terrance Lumpkin, daughter Sharon Lumpkin, granddaughter Natorra "Tori" Lumpkin Williams, and daughter-in-law Carolyn Fields Lumpkin.
Video
Oral Histories
Lumpkin, Mae WillieDougherty, Jack
Creative Commons BY-NC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/