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Here’s the video test

Sheff vs. O’Neill is a relatively unknown case that addressed the schooling differences between the City of Hartford, CT and the surrounding suburbs. Although Brown vs. Board had outlawed intentional segregation, it did not address the growing problem of de facto segregation. The Sheff vs O’Neill case claimed that because Hartford schools served a disproportionally poor and minority population, Hartford students were receiving a both separate and vastly unequal education when compared to their suburban peers. This, according to plaintiffs, was a violation of Connecticut’s constitution. Two of the plaintiffs, sisters Wildaliz and Eva Burmudez recount their stories in the video below. The Latino students discuss their memories and perceptions of the Sheff vs O’Neill case, their education in Hartford, and the continuing effects both have in their lives.

Wildaliz and Eva Bermudez, June 30, 2011 from Trinity College on Vimeo.

(Bermudez, Wildaliz and Eva. Oral history interview on Sheff v. O’Neill school desegregation by Anique Thompson for the Cities, Suburbs, and Schools Project, June 30, 2011. Available from the Trinity College Digital Repository, Hartford Connecticut (http://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cssp/).)

The photograph below (which significantly pre-dates the video above) is representative of one strategy used to provide Hartford students with a better, more equitable education. This group of African American students is standing next to a bus going to “suburbia.” The Hartford students are being bused out to a nearby suburb in the promise of a better education, likely as a part of Project Concern (an program that places urban students in suburban schools). This is representative of the racial divide between Hartford and its surrounding towns. While urban schools have been overwhelmed by the effects of racial isolation and concentrated poverty, “suburbia” represents promise and success to these smiling students.

Sheff Movement Coalition “Forty Years of Project Concern and Project Choice” (2008) from Trinity College on Vimeo

As said in the video clip above, Project Concern was “one of the first ‘interdistrict’ programs in the United States.” After the ruling of the Sheff v. O’Neill case, it was renamed Project Choice. Through this program students who lived in the Hartford area, were able to attend schools in the surrounding suburbs. In the clip, several individuals were interviewed, including students (past and present), parents and project staff, on how they felt about the program. Most of the interviewees were adults who had been students during the start of the program.

Although one of the interviewees expressed feelings of fear, as she had cried on the first day, the majority of the interviewees felt that being in this program was advantageous. None of them ever felt threaten as they went to school; on the contrary they recalled that the white students “welcomed them with open arms.” In all the interviewees felt that being apart of this program, even if they did not complete it, had left a huge impact on their lives.

Before historical cases like Sheff v. O’Neal and during the Civil Rights Movement, schools began to incorporate racial integration methods that could attempt to undo separate but equal laws in education. Such attempts include bussing minority students to suburban schools that had more funds, was located in a safer environment, and provided a better education. As shown in the photo below African American and Hispanic students began being bused to suburban, and predominantly white, neighborhoods .

Although children were being bused to better schools, schools located in predominantly non-white neighborhoods were being isolated thus denying children of an equal educational opportunity. Supreme Court cases like Sheff v. O’Neal furthered the efforts to achieve equal education opportunity to all children regardless of their ethnic background. In the video below, children, Wildaliz and Eva Bermudez, of the Bermudez (one of the plaintiffs in this case) explain their experience in the public school system in the southern end of Hartford and how their case and the efforts afterwards helped to change the school system in their predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. Eva, being the oldest, saw most of the impact her case had from how her high school Hartford High changed from being on the verge of losing its accreditation to gaining it and being diverse in the ethnicities of the students attending it.

Source: Bermudez, Wildaliz and Eva. Oral history interview on Sheff v. O’Neill school desegregation by Anique Thompson for the Cities, Suburbs, and Schools Project, June 30, 2011. Available from the Trinity College Digital Repository, Hartford Connecticut (http://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cssp/).
Sheff v. O’Neal Oral Interview with Eva and Wildaliz Bermudez

Wildaliz and Eva Bermudez, June 30, 2011 from Trinity College on Vimeo.

Source: Caplan, Eleanor Neiditz. Oral history interview onConnecticut Civil Rights (with video) by Anique Thompsonfor the Cities, Suburbs, and Schools Project, July 6, 2011. Available from theTrinity College Digital Repository, Hartford Connecticut (http://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cssp/).

Mrs. Caplan was recruited as a typist and later worked as a researcher and “legislative liason” for the Connecticut Civil Rights Commission and shares her memories with the activist group. Her data collection showed segregation in virtually all of the housing projects that her group examined. One method she mentioned that real estate agents would use to restrict housing was to selectively show only a certain pool of houses to minorities. Mrs. Caplan repeatedly mentioned that a sense of sociopolitical powerlessness was prevalent in many activist attempts.

Source: Hartford Times Collection, West Hartford, 1954. Barcode: 32520104892483

This image depicts the Oak Acres Temporary Housing Projects, which probably exhibited segregation to at least some degree.