Nikole Hannah-Jones wrote for the cover story for the New York Times Magazine’s education issue about one Alabama town’s attempt to secede from its school district.
In 2013, a flier began making the rounds in Gardendale, Ala., a suburb of Birmingham. On it, a blond white girl wearing a red backpack and knee-high socks peered innocently at a question hanging above her head: “Which path will Gardendale choose?” Beside her was a list of communities in Jefferson County—Pleasant Grove, Center Point/Huffman, Adamsville/Forestdale, Hueytown—under the heading: “Places that chose NOT to form their own school system.” Below that was a list of four communities—Homewood, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Trussville—that did form their own school systems and were “listed as some of the best places to live in the country.”
