30 Years Later, Settlement Reached in Connecticut School-Desegregation Case

Parties in “Sheff v. O’Neill,” a long battle over school desegregation in Hartford, reached a settlement Friday afternoon. While in many communities throughout the country, school segregation is a thing of the past, Connecticut had a three-decades-long legal battle on how to reduce racial isolation within Hartford’s schools.

That court battle—known as Sheff v. O’Neill—ended Friday afternoon.

State and education officials, including Gov. Ned Lamont, Attorney General William Tong, Connecticut Education Commissioner Dr. Miguel Cardona and the plaintiffs’ attorney, Martha Stone of the Center for Children’s Advocacy, plaintiff Elizabeth Horton Sheff, and NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney Deuel Ross spoke with the media on Jan. 10 in Hartford to discuss a settlement in the case.

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