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

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.