2018 Best Visual Storytelling (Larger Staff) Winner 1

“Is Your District Drawing Borders to Reduce or Perpetuate Racial Segregation?”

About the Entry

In America, there is already a massive amount of residential segregation, shaped by a long history of racist government policies. This is why everyone going to the nearest school perpetuates very segregated classrooms. But using school zones, we can actually gerrymander these lines so we’re not re-creating the underlying segregation.

Comments from the Judges

“Being able to read about my local school districts was powerful. The entire piece was easy to walk through and sprinkled with meaningful cartoons and everyday language (e.g., mentioning bake sales and multiplication tables) that remind us we’re talking about children here.”

“This was a tremendous project: elegant presentation; super useful; and with all the projects on school segregation that have come out in recent years, I haven’t seen the numbers cut quite like this.”

“This takes big chunks of data, potentially deadly dull, and presents it clearly and in a compelling manner. That we can enter a specific school district and see how it is zoned is just remarkable. Three cheers!”

Photo credit: Vox