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Title details for Ghosts in the Schoolyard by Eve L. Ewing - Available

Ghosts in the Schoolyard

Racism and School Closings in Chicago's South Side

by Eve L. Ewing
Lisa Reneé Pitts
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Eve L. Ewing knows Chicago Public Schools from the inside: as a student, then a teacher, and now a scholar who studies them. And that perspective has shown her that public schools are not buildings full of failures—they're an integral part of their neighborhoods, at the heart of their communities, storehouses of history and memory that bring people together.

Never was that role more apparent than in 2013 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced an unprecedented wave of school closings. Pitched simultaneously as a solution to a budget problem, a response to declining enrollments, and a chance to purge bad schools that were dragging down the whole system, the plan was met with a roar of protest from parents, students, and teachers. But if these schools were so bad, why did people care so much about keeping them open?


Ewing's answer begins with a story of systemic racism, inequality, bad faith, and distrust that stretches deep into Chicago history. Black communities see the closing of their schools—schools that are certainly less than perfect but that are theirs—as one more in a long line of racist policies. The fight to keep them open is yet another front in the ongoing struggle of black people in America to build successful lives and achieve true self-determination.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 25, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781515936756
      • File size: 196066 KB
      • Duration: 06:48:28

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Blending history and memoir, Eve Ewing's audiobook offers a challenging look at the targeted closure of several public schools in Chicago in 2013. Why these schools? Why these communities? Lisa Rene� Pitts narrates this dense exploration with determination. Her enunciation is clear, and her emphasis unmistakable as she voices parents and community members. The author has a unique position as a scholar and researcher because she was formerly a student and teacher on the city's South Side--it would have been interesting to hear an intro or endnote by her. Public life in Chicago has long been shaped by political corruption and racist policies, and Ewing's investigation is an indictment of outcomes determined by neighborhoods and zip codes. A.S. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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