Dr. Lisa Kingstone Speaks About First Class of Kindergartners to Integrate in Berkeley Schools in 1968

Dr. Lisa Kingstone, Associate Professor in Educational Foundations, was interviewed by Berkeleyside, a nonprofit digital news publication in Berkeley, California, about the first class of kindergartners to integrate Berkeley schools in 1968. Dr. Kingstone herself is a member of the 1968 class and is currently working on a research project on the impact of attending integrated schools. She is tracing how this experience affected the children’s ability to socially integrate across racial lines and how it helped form their adult identities.

Dr. Kingstone organized a reunion with her classmates in making a documentary about their experiences at Tilden Primary. Those who attended the Tilden reunion had, for the most part, overwhelmingly positive experiences with integration and spoke warmly of its impact on their lives.

“I thought I may be idealizing Tilden,” Kingstone told Berkeleyside. But after talking with her classmates during the reunion, she confirmed her memories of the school: It was, for the most part, the kind of melting pot that integration advocates hoped it would be.