DiscoverYou Decide with Errol LouisEleanor Bumpurs and the system that failed her
Eleanor Bumpurs and the system that failed her

Eleanor Bumpurs and the system that failed her

Update: 2025-10-23
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In October 1984, an NYPD officer fatally shot 66-year-old Eleanor Bumpurs during an eviction at her Bronx apartment. Bumpurs, a disabled mother and grandmother, became the face of a national outcry that helped spark one of the first anti–police brutality movements centered on a Black woman.

Historian LaShawn Harris, who was 10 years old and living across the street at the time, revisits the tragedy in her new book, "Tell Her Story." Harris joined NY1's Errol Louis to discuss her decade of research and dozens of interviews, the intersection of police violence and mental health crises, and her effort to humanize Bumpurs while illuminating the lasting toll such events take on families and communities.

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Eleanor Bumpurs and the system that failed her

Eleanor Bumpurs and the system that failed her

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