Defining diversity
In the 2016-2017 school year, twenty-four students in my Seminar on American Diversity set out to understand the meaning of diversity and equity in America today. They wrote Defining Diversity, a book of prose and photography.
The book is a concise and inspiring journey through a century-and-a-half of seminal moments in American history told through the voices of the next generation. It explores the key ideas, federal laws, and Supreme Court decisions that have shaped our society.
Defining Diversity has special resonance because Lowell High was the very first integrated high school in the United States—open to all from its founding in the 1830’s. Today, the school is one of the most diverse in the nation, home to students from 66 countries across five continents. Defining Diversity is now in classrooms in almost all 50 U.S. States, and a number of schools, including one community college have incorporated the book into their curriculum.
