Bea Lumpkin ’39, a 102-year-old lifelong social justice activist, recently gained widespread media attention when she was photographed casting her ballot in the 2020 election, an action that cemented an unbroken 60-year-long streak of presidential election voting. In an October 26 New York Daily News op-ed, President Raab cites Lumpkin’s life and career as a paradigm of the Hunter experience, and as a mandate for contemporary students to participate in our democracy.
“Whatever side of the political spectrum you identify with, this much should be true: If this woman can risk her very life to vote at age 102, every student can vote as if their own lives depended on it,” says President Raab.