Lincoln I. Mulkey and Dorothy J. Mulkey were the challengers in a major lawsuit, Reitman v. Mulkey, that reestablished housing discrimination laws in the state of California. Lincoln I. Mulkey was born in Guadalupe County, Texas, to Wardie Daniel Mulkey and Edna Mae Randolph. He joined the US Navy and was honorably discharged in 1962. Dorothy J. Mulkey was born on May 2, 1940 in Earlington, Kentucky. Her father was a coal miner and her mother, a homemaker. She graduated from the segregated J.W. Million School in 1959 and was offered a scholarship to attend Kentucky State University. However, she joined the US Navy as a Yeoman in 1959. She worked part-time in the base library and movie theater in Newport, Rhode Island and was in the marching band.