Connecticut School Desegregation Collection

The issue of desegregation of Connecticut's schools became a legal one in 1975 and continues today. The collection provides an overview of regional and national concerns in the area of desegregation.

In 1989 Milo Sheff, a ten year old fourth grader from Hartford, CT, joined with seventeen other school children to file a lawsuit against the state of Connecticut, and Governor William O'Neill. Alledging that their constitutional rights to a public education and their rights to equal protection under the law were being violated, they called for the state to change its existing policy on educational equality. The case was originally argued in Hartford Superior Court, and was ruled in favor of the state and the governor. The judge ruled that school officials were not obligated to correct educational inequalities, no matter how they may have come to transpire. Following the finding by the Superior Court, the case was appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court. In 1996 the superior court overruled the lower court's ruling, stating that the state did in fact have an obligation to provide Connecticut's school children with equal educational opportunities. It also ruled that children had a constitutional right to a public education, one that could not be altered based on ethnic or racial background.

The debate surrounding Bridgeport's public school desegregation began in the 1970s and continued throughout the 1980s. In November 1975 the NAACP, the Spanish American Coalition (SAC), a group of community organizations, and individual black and hispanic parents filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the Bridgeport Board of Education, and the Connecticut State Board of Education. In 1978 the Mayor, Comptroller, and Board of Appointment and Taxation were added as defendants. The lawsuit was filed because the plaintiffs believed the Board of Education had created a dual school system, discriminating against black and hispanic students.