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Author Ewing, Eve L., author.

Title Ghosts in the schoolyard : racism and school closings on Chicago's South side / Eve L. Ewing.

Publication Info. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
©2018

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Berlin-Peck Memorial Library - Non Fiction  370.89 EWING    Check Shelf
 Glastonbury, Welles-Turner Memorial Library - Adult Department  371.829 EWING    Check Shelf
 New Britain, Main Library - Non Fiction  370.89 EWI    Check Shelf
 Newington, Lucy Robbins Welles Library - Adult Department  370.89 EWING    Check Shelf
 South Windsor Public Library - Non Fiction  371.829 EWING    Check Shelf
Description xiii, 222 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-217) and index.
Contents What a school means -- City of losses -- Dueling realities -- Mourning -- Conclusion: an open door.
Summary "Failing schools. Underprivileged schools. Just plain bad schools." That's how Eve L. Ewing opens Ghosts in the Schoolyard: describing Chicago Public Schools from the outside. The way politicians and pundits and parents of kids who attend other schools talk about them, with a mix of pity and contempt. But 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, to the point that some would even go on a hunger strike? Ewing's answer begins with a story of systemic racism, inequality, bad faith, and distrust that stretches deep into Chicago history. Rooting her exploration in the historic African American neighborhood of Bronzeville, Ewing reveals that this issue is about much more than just schools. 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.
Subject Walter H. Dyett High School (Chicago, Ill.)
African Americans -- Education -- Illinois -- Chicago.
Racism in education -- Illinois -- Chicago.
Low-performing schools -- Illinois -- Chicago.
Public school closings -- Illinois -- Chicago.
Bronzeville (Chicago, Ill.) -- History -- 21st century.
African Americans -- Education. (OCoLC)fst00799600
Low-performing schools. (OCoLC)fst01764163
Public school closings. (OCoLC)fst01082940
Racism in education. (OCoLC)fst01737534
Illinois -- Chicago. (OCoLC)fst01204048
Illinois -- Chicago -- Bronzeville. (OCoLC)fst01328001
EDUCATION.
HISTORY / United States / 20th Century.
HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI)
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies.
Chronological Term 2000-2099
Genre/Form History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
ISBN 9780226526027 (hardcover ;) (alkaline paper)
022652602X (hardcover ;) (alkaline paper)
9780226526331 (electronic book)
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