In 1954, Louis Redding, Delaware’s first Black attorney, joined the legal team at the NAACP to argue the Brown v Board case. Having agued two of the lower court cases that were incorporated into the Brown case, he was a key member of the team, along with Thurgood Marshall, who won perhaps the mostly widely known and celebrated court case ever. Sixty years later, his grandson, Stefan Lallinger, found himself teaching at school in New Orleans with over 90% students of color. This segregation wasn’t caused by explicit, legal requirements for segregated schools, and yet it still happened. Lallinger’s curiosity led him to get a doctorate and eventually to leading The Bridges Collaborative, a hub for school and housing practitioners to work together to advance the cause of integration.

Lallinger joins us to discuss his family legacy, how it shapes his current work, and what legacy he hopes to leave for his kids.

LINKS:

• Lallinger on the importance of the Bridges Collaborative work
• Martin Luther King, Jr on the difference between desegregation and integration
• A Vox explainer highlighting the work of Tomàs Monarrez and the Urban Institute on school boundaries
• The Bridges Collaborative
• IntegrateNYC, the 5 Rs of Real Integration
• The National Coalition of School Diversity
• Maya Angelou Still I Rise
• Langston Hughes Mother to Son
• Dr. Vanessa Siddle Walker – The Lost Education of Horace Tate
• Dr. Siddle Walker on our podcast
• MLK – Where Do We Go From Here
• MLK – A Testament of Hope
• W.E.B. DuBois on the fear of integrating Black students into hostile spaces

Use these links or start at our Bookshop.org storefront to support local bookstores, and send a portion of the proceeds back to us.

Join our Patreon to support this work, and connect with us and other listeners to discuss these issues even further.

Let us know what you think of this episode, suggest future topics, or share your story with us – @integratedschls on twitter, IntegratedSchools on Facebook, or email us [email protected].

We’re thrilled to be joining Connectd Podcasts, a network dedicated to helping shows like ours grow and thrive. For more info, or to check out their other amazing shows, head over to their website.

The Integrated Schools Podcast was created by Courtney Mykytyn and Andrew Lefkowits.

This episode was produced by Andrew Lefkowits and Val Brown. It was edited, and mixed by Andrew Lefkowits.

Music by Kevin Casey.

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