‘Bridging the Divide’ – Can Schools Break Down Racial Barriers?

A recent Baltimore Sun series by reporters Liz Bowie and Erica Green offers a penetrating look at issues of race and segregation in Maryland public schools. The four-part project, supported by an EWA Reporting Fellowship, examines hurdles to school integration, community resistance to redrawing boundary lines, and how well-intentioned efforts to create more diverse campuses often fall short. How did Bowie and Green approach the difficult task of getting parents to speak candidly about their sometimes unpopular views on school integration? What changed in the journalists’ plans as they became immersed in the on-the-ground reporting? And how did the professional relationship between Green, who is black, and Bowie, who is white, influence and inform their work?