THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT
Beatrice “Bea” Lumpkin
b. August 3, 1918
“I Grew Up Highly Influenced by Organized Labor and Radicals on the Left.”
A life-long veteran of battles for freedom and equality. Union organizer, political activist, professor, author. Founding member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), and life-long member of the Communist Party, USA. A leader of the Chicago Teachers’ Union, Lumpkin was a tenured professor at Malcolm X College. She has written several books about history and mathematics, as well as a biography of her late husband Frank Lumpkin (Always Bring a Crowd) and an autobiography, Joy In The Struggle.
Interviewed by Karen Fishman, VFA Member, October 2022
![#2 Bea Lumpkin, Grand Marshall of the 2022 Chicago Labor Day Parade, shown here with Chicago Federation of Labor Secretary Treas](https://i0.wp.com/veteranfeministsofamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2-Bea-Lumpkin-Grand-Marshall-of-the-2022-Chicago-Labor-Day-Parade-shown-here-with-Chicago-Federation-of-Labor-Secretary-Treas-e1665774428538-300x190.jpg?resize=300%2C190&ssl=1)
![#3 Lumpkin speaking at a get-out-the-vote rally in Chicago in 2015. Photo courtesy of the Chicago Teachers Union Twitter account](https://i0.wp.com/veteranfeministsofamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/3-Lumpkin-speaking-at-a-get-out-the-vote-rally-in-Chicago-in-2015.-Photo-courtesy-of-the-Chicago-Teachers-Union-Twitter-account.jpeg?resize=300%2C279&ssl=1)
![# 4 Frank and Bea Lumpkin 2005 -Beatrice](https://i0.wp.com/veteranfeministsofamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/4-Frank-and-Bea-Lumpkin-2005-Beatrice.jpg?resize=182%2C161&ssl=1)
Photo 1. Bea Lumpkin, Grand Marshal of the 2022 Chicago Labor Day Parade, with Chicago Federation of Labor Secretary Treasurer Don Villar. Photo 2. Bea speaking at a get-out-the-vote rally in Chicago, 2015 (Photo from The Chicago Teachers Union). Photo 3. Bea and Frank Lumpkin, 2005.
More About Bea:
- “Unstoppable” by Marcia Faye, Illinois Tech Magazine, 2019
- “Joy in the Struggle” by Bea Lumpkin
- Select Articles by Bea Lumpkin, People’s World
- Publications by Bea Lumpkin
- Frank Lumpkin on History Makers
- Coalition of Labor Union Women website
- Communist Party, USA website
- Illinois Labor History website
- United Steelworkers, SOAR in Action website
- Wikipedia page