In this video Wildaliz and Eva Bermudez recall their earliest memories of activism for school integration in Greater Hartford through their involvement as young plaintiffs in the 1989 Sheff v O’Neill lawsuit, and how the case shaped their lives as politically active adults today. The sisters describe why their parents (Pedro and Carmen Wilda Bermudez) supported the integration movement, and reflect on their personal experiences as Puerto Rican youth growing up in Hartford’s South End neighborhoods, attending Hartford Public Schools and bilingual education programs, and eventually (for Eva) an interdistrict magnet school.
These two women talk about their experiences in an out of court and how it has affected their lives in the long run. The bilingual program in Hartford schools were a real factor in their personal successes in Hartford schools.
The women also talked about the transition to Kennelly which was a school with a majority of caucasian students. Kennelly was one of the last places in the South End of Hartford where white flight had not occurred yet.
