Laura Meckler: In Conversation on Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity

Laura Meckler’s new book, out now, is vital reading for not only Northeast Ohioans but all Americans. (Click to read an excerpt below.)
The author took a few minutes last weekend to chat with Scene about the topic — what Shaker has gone through, where it stands now, what it means for its neighboring communities, and so much more.

Scene: There’s never not an interesting or vital time to talk about race in America, and you’re from Shaker. Setting those two obvious points aside, why this book, this topic, at this moment?

Shaker Heights has an extraordinary history that’s never been told in this way before. The topic was ripe for the longform exploration that good books do so well. But it’s not just history. The challenges for Shaker have changed over time, particularly as the economic divides in the city have grown. And Shaker Heights, and particularly the Shaker schools, are currently working through what it means to serve a racially and economically diverse community and how they can ensure excellence for all. For example, during the course of my reporting, the schools embarked on an ambitious and controversial merging of honors and regular-level courses, and a new facilities plan was debated. But the book was worth writing even without those particular current events because the Shaker story is so rich, complex and ever-evolving.

You begin the story with the founding of Shaker Heights. How does that early story relate to what followed?

Shaker Heights was founded as a community for wealthy white Clevelanders looking to escape the city for the promise of exclusivity and the finest things money could buy. That reputation as an upper-crust, elite enclave persisted for many years. Yet the story that has unfolded in more recent years is about whether that suburban dream of comfort can co-exist with the dreams of racial equity and diversity that Shaker residents have long said they value.

You describe how Shaker developed a national reputation for racial integration. But what prompted Shaker to embrace this identity?

The first Black families moved into the Ludlow neighborhood in the late 1950s. Soon, white and Black people in that area joined together to promote integration—to get to know each other, to promote integrated living and, crucially, to recruit white people in an effort to maintain racial balance. It was not a given that this same approach would spread to the rest of the city. As Black families moved into other neighborhoods, the city was for a time paralyzed. But some key figures pushed city leaders to recognize the reality of what was unfolding. Ultimately the community decided it was better to be seen as a place embracing diversity than fighting it, and that set the course for the decades to come.

How successful has the Shaker schools racial integration program been?

It’s been incredibly successful in getting students of different races into the same school buildings. Schools have been racially balanced for 35 years. It was far less successful in putting students of different races into the same classrooms, with white students much more likely to be enrolled in honors and advanced classes than Black students. A “de-tracking” initiative, begun in 2020, is changing that, with positive and negative results.

Shaker is an incredibly engaged community. Cleveland, meanwhile, struggles to turn out 20% of the voters for elections. What interplay is there between residents who have been beaten down and ignored and the sort of engagement that allows places like Shaker to succeed on the other side?

I think people engage in public debate when they feel like their voice counts and when they have the confidence and agency to demand that the powers that be listen to them. In Shaker Heights there are a lot of residents who fit that description. There are others—and they tend to be lower-income and are more likely to be Black—who don’t feel the same sense of empowerment and are less likely to voice their opinions on questions around the schools and the city. During a recent planning process for school facilities, residents from lower-income parts of the city were far less likely to weigh in during a feedback gathering process. So I think some of the same challenges that Cleveland experiences are also present in Shaker Heights, though perhaps less acute.

How has it differed from its surrounding neighbors?

When you look at the other inner-ring suburbs near Shaker Heights, you see how the integration Shaker has embraced was far from inevitable. Warrensville Heights and East Cleveland, to name two, were both once all-white. Today Warrensville Heights is 93 percent Black and East Cleveland is 89 percent Black. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with a majority or a super-majority Black community, but I believe there’s also real value in living in a diverse community, and those are much harder to find. Cleveland Heights, right next to Shaker Heights, has also had a long track record of racial integration in housing, though the schools are not as racially balanced today as Shaker’s are.

What’s the biggest challenge the Shaker schools face today?

Shaker Heights’ top challenge is the same as it ever was: increase achievement and academic excellence levels of kids who are struggling while also delivering a top-notch education for high-achieving families of all races who expect and demand it. Shaker cannot ignore either of these imperatives.

What lessons do you draw from Shaker’s experience? Is there anything here that is applicable to other communities?

The work of sharing community and educating a racially and economically diverse group of students is hard. It takes constant commitment—not just year in and year out, but decade in and decade out. It’s also important that leaders who are trying to do hard things have extraordinary communication abilities—to listen to what people are saying and to speak clearly about their goals and how they plan to reach them. I’ve seen examples of this being done well in Shaker—and examples of it being done poorly.

How does the ultra conservative politicization of school boards and city councils in recent years factor into the possibility of others mirroring Shaker?

The divisions in this country are stark and growing wider. You have school districts like Shaker Heights asking whether they are doing enough to promote racial equity and leaders elsewhere who consider any such efforts not just unnecessary but actively harmful and offensive. I think there are lots of places that hold the same values you find in a place like Shaker, and that’s where you see similar work going on. But that’s much more likely to happen in very liberal or very progressive parts of the country. Because people in communities that are politically mixed need to consider that any initiative seen as “woke” or obsessed with race is probably going to come under scrutiny. And we’ve seen that sometimes that scrutiny can be quite harsh.

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