Tallulah Morgan

Tallulah Morgan (born 1948) was the main plaintiff in the historical case Morgan v. Hennigan, which led to the desegregation of the Boston school system in the 1970s.

Early life Her background seems somewhat unclear as she is occasionally identified as a Boston Public Schools student. However, in-depth sources, like journalist Anthony Lukacs's book Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade on the Lives of Three American Families, identify Morgan as "a twenty-four-year-old mother of three school-age children."

That seems to be verified by the initial complaint filed in Morgan v. Hennigan, which lists a Mrs. Tallulah Morgan and her three children: Petri, Kimberly, and Kirsten.

Morgan was a black, working-class Boston resident, and the complaint reflects her frustration with Boston Public Schools' policy of racial segregation and underfunding of black-majority schools.

Morgan v. Hennigan She headed the list of plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit against the Boston School Committee. The School Committee, whose director, James Hennigan, was named the main defendant, was accused of intentionally bringing about and maintaining racial segregation in the Boston School District.

The lawsuit was filed on March 14, 1972 by the Boston Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The judge assigned to the case was Judge W. Arthur Garrity, who reached his decision on June 21, 1974.

The plaintiffs claimed that through practices such as "the adoption and maintenance of pupil assignment policies, the establishment and manipulation of attendance areas and district lines reflecting segregated residential patterns, the establishment of grade structures and feeder patterns, the administration of school capacity, enlargement, and construction policies, [and] transportation practices," the Boston School Committee had in effect denied black school children equal protection under the law. The foundation's mission was to represent black Bostonians who sought better educational opportunities for students of color. The foundation's work including the creation of scholarship and grant funds to support black students and civil rights organizations, conferences for desegregation advocates, and grassroots community organizing, including surveys on public perceptions of the Boston Public Schools and desegregation efforts. It is not clear that the foundation is still operational.