Oral history interview with Elaine Bibuld, 2000

Biographical Note

Elaine Bibuld was born in 1930 in New York City. She married Jerome Bibuld, and they had three biracial children at a time when interracial families were illegal in twenty-one states. Both Bibuld and her husband became active members of the Brooklyn chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). After a fire forced the family to move to a new neighborhood in Brooklyn, Bibuld was unsatisfied with her children's education and fought the Board of Education for better schooling. Bibuld and Brooklyn CORE staged sit-ins at the Board of Education, and Bibuld unofficially placed her children in another school with more resources. Bibuld took the case to court and won, leading to a revision in policy. She lived in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Prospect Heights until her death in 2003

Scope and Contents

Bibuld discusses her early life and familial history; how she met Jerome Bibuld, her first husband; and why she joined the Brooklyn chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Bibuld talks about her teenage volunteer work for the Ben (Benjamin J.) Davis Jr. campaign in Harlem and her work as a receptionist for W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt) Du Bois. She discusses various CORE projects and actions, citing the Operation Clean Sweep of Gates Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Bibuld describes her struggle with the Board of Education after watching her children suffer through a poor education at a segregated school following the fire that caused the family to move to a new neighborhood. She discusses the following legal case and its implications for her family and others. She recalls the threats she and her family received, including one from the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Bibuld also discusses her ten-day stay in the Women's House of Detention. She concludes by talking about her reunions with other members of Brooklyn CORE

Subjects

• Bibuld, Elaine--Interviews.
• Civil rights movements--United States--History--20th century.
• Congress of Racial Equality. Brooklyn Chapter.
• Davis, Benjamin J. (Benjamin Jefferson), 1903-1964.
• Discrimination in education--New York (State)--New York.
• Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963.
• Interviews.
• Michaels, Sheila, 1939-2017, interviewer.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Segregation in education--United States.
• United States--Race relations--History--20th century.