{"id":13583,"date":"2016-04-20T19:13:39","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T23:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/?p=13583"},"modified":"2016-04-21T08:09:38","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T12:09:38","slug":"a-fearless-leader-the-story-of-elizabeth-horton-sheff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/2016\/04\/20\/a-fearless-leader-the-story-of-elizabeth-horton-sheff\/","title":{"rendered":"1989: A Fearless Leader: The Story of Elizabeth Horton Sheff"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Elizabeth Horton Sheff and Milo Sheff, lead plaintiffs in the Sheff vs. O\u2019Neill case, speak to reporters outside the Connecticut Superior Court. Source: CT Post<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The landmark Connecticut Supreme Court case, Sheff v. O\u2019Neill, filed in 1989 on behalf of children in the Hartford school district, was monumental in working towards erasing segregation in Hartford schools. This case was filed on the basis that Hartford children, who were overwhelmingly Black and Hispanic, were receiving an unfair public education because of the racial and socioeconomic segregation that separates the city from the suburbs<\/span>\u00a0[ref]Sheff v. O\u2019Neill complaint (Connecticut Superior Court 1989). Available from the Trinity College Digital Repository, Hartford, Connecticut (http:\/\/digitalrepository.trincoll.edu)[\/ref]. The suit, filed by the parents of these children, looked to desegregate the Hartford public school system. At the time of filing, lead plaintiff, Milo Sheff, was a ten year old Black child living in Hartford with his mother, Elizabeth Horton Sheff, and attended fourth grade at the Annie Fisher School[ref]Ib.Id[\/ref]<\/span>. Along with the parents of the eighteen other plaintiffs, Elizabeth Horton Sheff worked tirelessly to ensure that all children in Connecticut would have access to equal schooling. Although this historic Connecticut school integration case is named for her son, Elizabeth Horton Sheff originally became apart of the case by accident, yet over time grew to become its most vocal activist.<\/span><\/p>\n

While some might call her an \u201caccidental plaintiff\u201d since she was not initially supposed to attend the community meeting discussing the racial isolation in Hartford schools, Elizabeth Horton Sheff\u2019s work for Connecticut children is nothing short of remarkable. Even though she did not have a history of being involved in education inequality issues, she was a long time activist for \u201cjustice for people with HIV\/AIDS, housing security, food security, and the anti-apartheid movement\u201d and prior to her involvement in the case, had always been an extremely civic minded person[ref]<\/span>Sheff, Elizabeth Horton. Oral history interview on Sheff v. O\u2019Neill (with video) by Candace Simpson for the Cities, Suburbs, and Schools Project, July 28, 2011.Available from the Trinity College Digital Repository, Hartford Connecticut (http:\/\/digitalrepository.trincoll.edu\/cssp\/).[\/ref].\u00a0<\/span>Elizabeth Horton Sheff grew up in the former Charter Oak Housing Project, which she \u201clovingly refers to as the…Wal-Mart plaza on Flatbush Avenue,\u201d a neighborhood that had \u201call different families, racial ethnic families, West Indian, Hispanic, Italian, Asian\u2026 [and] what made it so very special was that families knew families and took care of each other\u2019s children[ref]Ib.Id[\/ref].\u201d<\/span> While she might have grown up in a single parent household where her mother worked a lot of long hours, she notes that growing up in a community where people cared about each other led her to have a wonderful childhood. She describes her mother as a woman who \u201cworked very hard to ensure that [they] didn\u2019t understand how very poor [they] were and\u2026 that is the basis that led [them] all to be confident youth and person who have excelled in adulthood[ref]Ib.Id.[\/ref].\u201d<\/span> Elizabeth Horton Sheff\u2019s prior training as an activist helped shape her involvement in the Sheff case. Much of her training comes from her work as the Vice President of the Westbrook Village Tenants\u2019 Association, which is a public housing development that she raised her children in in the northwest corner of the city[ref]Ib.Id.[\/ref].<\/span> When the president of the association was invited to discuss the growing racial isolation in the city schools by civil rights public interest attorneys and local attorney, John Brittain, she asked Elizabeth to attend instead due to fear of some political pushback since she had a child in the Project Choice program. Elizabeth agreed to go because of her interest in public education and take some notes for her friend and as she says fondly, \u201c23 years later, I am still taking notes[ref]Ib.Id.[\/ref].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n