Dream Town
Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Ohio Book Award
Finalist of the Malott Prize for Recording Community Activism
Can a group of well-intentioned people fulfill the promise of racial integration in America?
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Meckler debuts with an in-depth analysis of desegregation efforts in her hometown of Shaker Heights, Ohio. Developed in the early 20th century as an affluent, white suburb of Cleveland, Shaker Heights remained that way for decades because real estate agents refused to show homes to Black home buyers, neighbors declined to give required approvals to nonwhite potential neighbors, and banks denied loans to mortgage applicants deemed "undesirable." Over time, various organizations attempted to integrate Shaker Heights, but it wasn't until the civil rights movement of the 1960s that those efforts met with any measure of success. Meckler details how Ludlow, one of the first neighborhoods to integrate, sought to counteract white flight by recruiting white home buyers and promoting the benefits of a "racially diverse community," and delves deep into the persistence of the racial achievement gap in Shaker Heights's public schools. The case study of a well-regarded white teacher who was placed on administrative leave after being accused of "humiliat and embarrass" a Black student in her AP English class sheds light on the racial tensions at play. Throughout, Meckler draws on extensive interviews with parents, teachers, community leaders, and students to present the various controversies from multiple perspectives, resulting in a nuanced and impressively detailed study of the barriers to racial equality. Policymakers and social justice activists should take note.
