Beatrice “Bea” Lumpkin, a retired Chicago Public Schools teacher and lifelong activist, was born on August 13, 1918, in The Bronx, New York, making her an incredible 106 years of age.
Her journey into activism began during high school during the Great Depression. “I was focused on studying and the swim team, but I always knew, even when I was 6 years old, how much injustice there was. It was an easy observation to make,” Bea recalls. She remembers a pivotal moment when her entire high school walked out in protest as part of the anti-war movement. Curious about the protest, she asked a teammate what was happening, only to be told she wouldn’t be interested. “That made me all the more curious,” Bea explained, and her curiosity blossomed into lifelong activism. “Becoming an activist totally changed my life.”
After graduating from high school, Bea attended Hunter College, where tuition was free at the time, and earned her BA in 1939. She didn’t become a teacher right away, working instead in various jobs, including writing instruction manuals on how to build electronic equipment, which she says helped prepare her for her future as an educator.
