The Bullitt Lecture in American History presents Eve L. Ewing

“This book will transform the way you see this country.”—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

About the Speaker:

Eve L. Ewing is a writer, scholar, and cultural organizer from Chicago. She is the award-winning author of five books: "Electric Arches," "1919," "Ghosts in the Schoolyard," "Maya and the Robot," and most recently "Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism." She is the co-author (with Nate Marshall) of the play "No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks" and has written several projects for Marvel Comics. Ewing is an associate professor in the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago. Her work has been published in "The New Yorker," "The Atlantic," "The New York Times," and many other venues.

About the Book:

If all children could just get an education, the logic goes, they would have the same opportunities later in life. But this historical tour de force makes it clear that the opposite is true: The U.S. school system has played an instrumental role in creating and upholding racial hierarchies, preparing children to expect unequal treatment throughout their lives.

In "Original Sins," Ewing demonstrates that our schools were designed to propagate the idea of white intellectual superiority, to “civilize” Native students and to prepare Black students for menial labor. Education was not an afterthought for the Founding Fathers; it was envisioned by Thomas Jefferson as an institution that would fortify the country’s racial hierarchy. Ewing argues that these dynamics persist in a curriculum that continues to minimize the horrors of American history. The most insidious aspects of this system fall below the radar in the forms of standardized testing, academic tracking, disciplinary policies, and uneven access to resources.

By demonstrating that it’s in the DNA of American schools to serve as an effective and underacknowledged mechanism maintaining inequality in this country today, Ewing makes the case that we need a profound reevaluation of what schools are supposed to do, and for whom. This book will change the way people understand the place we send our children for eight hours a day.

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