In this searing and intimate examination of the ideals and realities of racial integration, award-winning Washington Post journalist Laura Meckler tells the story of a decades-long pursuit in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and uncovers the roadblocks that have threatened progress time and again--in housing, in education, and in the promise of shared community.
In the late 1950s, Shaker Heights began groundbreaking work that would make it a national model for housing integration. And beginning in the seventies, it was known as a crown jewel in the national move to racially integrate schools. The school district built a reputation for academic excellence and diversity, serving as a model for how white and Black Americans can thrive together. Meckler--herself a product of Shaker Heights--takes a deeper look into the place that shaped her, investigating its complicated history and its ongoing challenges in order to untangle myth from truth. She confronts an enduring, and troubling, question--if Shaker Heights has worked so hard at racial equity, why does a racial academic achievement gap persist?
In telling the stories of the Shakerites who have built and lived in this community, Meckler asks: What will it take to fulfill the promise of racial integration in America? What compromises are people of all races willing to make? What does success look like, and has Shaker achieved it? The result is a complex and masterfully reported portrait of a place that, while never perfect, has achieved more than most and a road map for communities that seek to do the same.
Includes black-and-white images.
Laura Meckler is national education writer for the Washington Post, where she covers education across the country as well as national education policy and politics. She previously reported on the White House, presidential politics, immigration, and health care for the Wall Street Journal, as well as health and social policy for the Associated Press. Her honors include a Nieman Fellowship and Livingston Award for National Reporting, and she was part of a team that won the George Polk Award for Justice Reporting. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two sons.
Meckler will be in conversation with Jesse J. Holland, a nationally known journalist, educator and author with a portfolio of stories that challenge perspectives, reshape narratives and inspire change. He is the author of the award-winning nonfiction books, The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves Inside the White House and Black Men Built The Capitol: Discovering African American History in and Around Washington, D.C. He is also an accomplished fiction author, having written the novels Black Panther: Who Is The Black Panther?, the first novel featuring the world’s most popular Black superhero, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Finn’s Story. He is also an celebrated editor, having helmed the award-winning anthology Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda. He has also been named the editor of the upcoming anthology Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson, scheduled to be published in February 2024. Jesse is a weekend host of Washington Journal on C-SPAN and the associate director of the School of Media & Public Affairs at The George Washington University. He was the Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Residence at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Ethics in Journalism at the University of Arkansas. He was a longtime Race & Ethnicity Reporter at the Associated Press in Washington, D.C, where he also served as a White House, Supreme Court and Congressional reporter. Jesse is currently writing his next nonfiction book about the freed slaves who lived in Freedman's Village outside of Washington, D.C., working on his first documentary, The Invisibles: Slaves of the White House, and advising nonfiction authors on their books through his work with the Masters of Fine Arts in Nonfiction at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland.
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