Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings in Chicago’s South Side Audiobook (Free)

Eve L. Ewing knows Chicago Public Colleges from the within: as a student, then a teacher, and now a scholar who research them. And that perspective shows her that open public schools aren’t buildings filled with failures-they’re a fundamental element of their neighborhoods, in the centre of their neighborhoods, storehouses of background and memory that bring people together.

Under no circumstances was that function more apparent than in 2013 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced an unprecedented influx of college closings. Pitched about Spirits in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings in Chicago’s South Part simultaneously as a remedy to a budget problem, a reply to declining enrollments, and an opportunity to purge bad schools which were dragging down the whole system, the program was met using a roar of protest from parents, learners, and instructors. But if these schools were so very bad, why did people care a lot about keeping them open?

Ewing’s answer begins with a story of systemic racism, inequality, poor trust, and distrust that stretches deep into Chicago history. Black communities start to see the shutting of their schools-schools that are certainly less than perfect but that are theirs-as yet another in an extended line of racist plans. The fight to keep them open is definitely yet another front side in the ongoing struggle of black people in America to build successful lives and achieve true self-determination.