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Tell Her Story: Eleanor Bumpurs & the Police Killing That Galvanized New York City
The life and 1984 murder of a beloved Black grandmother that changed community activism forever—and sparked the ongoing movement against racist policing and brutality
# The story of Eleanor Bumpurs, told for the first time by decorated historian and Bumpurs's former neighbor LaShawn Harris
On October 29, 1984, 66-year-old beloved Black disabled grandmother Eleanor Bumpurs was murdered in her own home. A public housing tenant 4 months behind on rent, Ms. Bumpurs was facing eviction when white NYPD officer Stephen Sullivan shot her twice with a 12-gauge shotgun. LaShawn Harris, 10 years old at the time, felt the aftershocks of the tragedy in her community well beyond the four walls of her home across the street.
Now an award-winning historian, Harris uses eyewitness accounts, legal documents, civil rights pamphlets, and more to look through the lens of her childhood neighbor's life and death. She renders in a new light the history of anti-Black police violence and of the watershed anti-policing movement Eleanor Bumpurs's murder birthed.
So many Black women's lives have been stolen since—Deborah Danner, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Sonya Massey—and still more are on the line. This deeply researched, intimate portrait of Eleanor Bumpurs's life and legacy highlights how one Black grandmother’s brutal police murder galvanized an entire city. It also shows how possible and critical it is to stand together against racist policing now.
# The story of Eleanor Bumpurs, told for the first time by decorated historian and Bumpurs's former neighbor LaShawn Harris
On October 29, 1984, 66-year-old beloved Black disabled grandmother Eleanor Bumpurs was murdered in her own home. A public housing tenant 4 months behind on rent, Ms. Bumpurs was facing eviction when white NYPD officer Stephen Sullivan shot her twice with a 12-gauge shotgun. LaShawn Harris, 10 years old at the time, felt the aftershocks of the tragedy in her community well beyond the four walls of her home across the street.
Now an award-winning historian, Harris uses eyewitness accounts, legal documents, civil rights pamphlets, and more to look through the lens of her childhood neighbor's life and death. She renders in a new light the history of anti-Black police violence and of the watershed anti-policing movement Eleanor Bumpurs's murder birthed.
So many Black women's lives have been stolen since—Deborah Danner, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Sonya Massey—and still more are on the line. This deeply researched, intimate portrait of Eleanor Bumpurs's life and legacy highlights how one Black grandmother’s brutal police murder galvanized an entire city. It also shows how possible and critical it is to stand together against racist policing now.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 26, 2025
7 people are currently reading
3250 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 27, 2025
This book really blew me away. I grew up in New York, always knowing the name Eleanor Bumpurs but never knowing who she was as a person. Like many victims of police murder, she was memorialized in her death not her life. “Tell Her Story” feels like a homecoming for Bumpurs, as it provides a full biography of her life, from birth. A life that’s reflective of the Black experience in America in the mid-to-late 20th Century, touching on the Great Migration, Jim Crow in the north, the New York City Housing Authority, and the dangers of being “in the system.”
LaShawn Harris did a phenomenal job of telling the story of not only Eleanor, but the Bumpurs as well as many disenfranchised Black and Latino New Yorkers. “Tell Her Story” should be mandatory reading for every New York institution that claims to work “for the people.”
LaShawn Harris did a phenomenal job of telling the story of not only Eleanor, but the Bumpurs as well as many disenfranchised Black and Latino New Yorkers. “Tell Her Story” should be mandatory reading for every New York institution that claims to work “for the people.”
September 9, 2025
wow! this was a story I haven't heard. gives me so much to chew over. realizing that making life better isn't as easy as my mindset has led me to believe. I have been able to make changes in my life and make decisions that allowed me to become a better human along with making a better life for myself.
knowing that theres more to housing than I ever knew in the low income houses/apartments. this was eye opening on so many levels for me.
I've been talking about it with anyone who'd listen. the brutality people endure and the way our judicial system isn't always as blind or as open to weighing all evidence and making the correct decisions.
Mary went through leaps and bounds to fight for her mother's rights. why wouldn't we want to have someone who was in need of hospital help get the support needed?
what a life full of twists and turns and eagerness to make a better life for her family. Ms. Eleanor did her best with what she had.
knowing that theres more to housing than I ever knew in the low income houses/apartments. this was eye opening on so many levels for me.
I've been talking about it with anyone who'd listen. the brutality people endure and the way our judicial system isn't always as blind or as open to weighing all evidence and making the correct decisions.
Mary went through leaps and bounds to fight for her mother's rights. why wouldn't we want to have someone who was in need of hospital help get the support needed?
what a life full of twists and turns and eagerness to make a better life for her family. Ms. Eleanor did her best with what she had.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 23, 2025
3.5
The story of Eleanor Bumpurs is tragic and her death was completely unnecessary. Unfortunately, her story is just one of thousands...millions in the U.S. of police brutality. I'm glad this book exists to tell her story.
The writing was extremely flowery, clunky and repetitive and I found myself rolling my eyes more than I wanted to (not due to Bumpurs' story) because the author made simple sentences too over the top with unnecessary quotes, suppositions and extremely long introductions to people.
This is an example: "Mary learned, as theorized by prominent civil rights leader and Manhattan resident Ella Baker who died two years after Eleanor in 1986, that ordinary working-class people like herself could be agents of societal transformation." Completely unnecessary and clunky.
But I guess the importance of this book, beyond writing, is to tell Eleanor Bumpurs' story, which is what really matters.
The story of Eleanor Bumpurs is tragic and her death was completely unnecessary. Unfortunately, her story is just one of thousands...millions in the U.S. of police brutality. I'm glad this book exists to tell her story.
The writing was extremely flowery, clunky and repetitive and I found myself rolling my eyes more than I wanted to (not due to Bumpurs' story) because the author made simple sentences too over the top with unnecessary quotes, suppositions and extremely long introductions to people.
This is an example: "Mary learned, as theorized by prominent civil rights leader and Manhattan resident Ella Baker who died two years after Eleanor in 1986, that ordinary working-class people like herself could be agents of societal transformation." Completely unnecessary and clunky.
But I guess the importance of this book, beyond writing, is to tell Eleanor Bumpurs' story, which is what really matters.
September 5, 2025
A moving and unflinching history that transforms a tragedy into a call for justice, reminding us why voices against police violence can never go silent
September 9, 2025
Powerful, heartbreaking, and unflinching, this account ensures Eleanor Bumpurs’s story is not forgotten while exposing the roots of a struggle that still rages today.
October 8, 2025
This is a beautiful account of this woman”s life. The story was insightful and deeply respectful to Eleanor Bumpurs and her family. I hope more people read this book. Truly amazing and touching!
October 13, 2025
Tour de force research and storytelling. What would it be like if we could know the stories of everyone who died violently in police encounters this intimately?
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews