Hannah-Jones presses for an integration plan

Photo: Regina Fleming.

“You head the system,” Nikole Hannah-Jones told New York City schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels during their October 20 conversation about school integration. She wanted to know what he would do with that authority.

The town hall, presented by The Bell and New York Appleseed at Manhattan’s Washington Irving campus, gave the 2027 Neal Conan Laureate time to pursue an answer through repeated follow-ups.

Community support and executive responsibility

Samuels argued that integration efforts need community support. Chalkbeat’s video introduction notes his experience with integration as superintendent in Manhattan’s District 3 and Brooklyn’s District 13.

Chalkbeat’s fuller report describes Hannah-Jones seeking a systemwide plan and asking about reducing admissions screens, which select students by prior academic performance. Samuels pointed to district working groups and the need for local conversations.

The exchange exposed the distance between an explanation of the obstacles and a commitment to act. Hannah-Jones kept returning to the decisions available to Samuels as chancellor.

He left without offering specific systemwide integration policies or a timetable for a fuller plan. Reporters have a clear follow-up: what the working groups produce, and when the chancellor will put forward a proposal.