Tuesday, April 7, 2009

SHEFF v. O'NEILL CASE TURNS 20 THIS MONTH

Twenty years ago our family was asked to be part of an historic Connecticut school desegregation lawsuit that has come to be known as Sheff v. O'Neil. My two daughters where five and three years old at that time. While some progress has been made in desegregating Hartford's schools much is left to be done. Hartford schools remain over 90% minority with only one-third of the entering ninth graders graduating from high school.

When we begun this lawsuit I thought it would take about five years to make substantial progress. After all, Connecticut has consistently been one of the richest states in the USA and remains a "blue state." I was wrong, but the fight continues.

On Monday, April 27th from 5 PM to 7:30 PM we will celebrate the struggle. The event will take place at Starr Hall at UCONN Law School in Hartford, Ct. - Conner of Sherman and Fern Street.

The lawyers involved in the case will speak, as will Susan Eaton of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School and Elizabeth Horton Sheff, whose son is the lead plaintiff in the case.

The event is co-hosted by the Black Law Students Association and the Latino Law Students Association.

-- Tom Connolly

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