An excerpt from Dream Town
Kathleen FitzSimons logged off her antiracism book club feeling despair. She was also confused.
Indeed, for decades, Kathleen had considered herself a small part of the solution to America’s troubling relationship with race. Now she wondered if it was enough. They bought a home in Shaker Heights in the 1960s as the city was beginning to embrace and encourage racially integrated housing. Shaker was battling the real estate industry, banks and social pressures that all encouraged white flight as soon as Black residents arrived. The FitzSimons family moved into the Lomond neighborhood, looking to be part of something different.
“She had a hell of a time convincing the school that her boys deserved better, and was ultimately unsuccessful,” she wrote in her email. It never occurred to FitzSimons to advocate on her behalf, to say to the school, “What are we doing here?” It wasn’t just about money. She had been friendly “across the fence,” but never thought to include these neighbors in her wide social circle based on Lomond Boulevard and nearby streets. “We were committed to integration. We thought that was enough,” she said later. “It didn’t occur to me you have to go the next step, you have to invite them over.”
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