More than 115,000 Latino and Black students attend schools with no teachers of the same race or ethnicity and an additional 80,000 Latino and Black students attend schools with just one teacher of the same race or ethnicity. Read stories about why this matters to students.

EmbraceRace hosted IntegrateNYC's youth activists Hebh Jamal and Matthew Diaz along with executive director Sarah Camiscoli for a conversation about the history of segregation in NYC public schools, and what is being done to change it. Sarah described the way IntegrateNYC looks at integration, articulating "The 5 R's of Real Integration," and Matt and Hebh talked in depth about their own efforts to induce this kind of restructuring.

Remember last February’s mass student walkout in New York City protesting President Trump’s travel ban? It was planned by Palestinian-American Muslim Hebh Jamal, who was in high school at the time. “I contacted a lot of different organizers from across the city — we were all really outraged,” says the Bronx native. “The walkout was an exemplary representation of unity, solidarity, and empathy.” Hebh’s activism is at the center of everything she does. She’s spoken before thousands at numerous rallies and events, including at high schools and the Ford Foundation, and she’s a key member of Integrate New York City, a student-­led organization that tackles school segregation. Now a freshman at the City University of New York, where she studies economics and political science, Hebh also works full­-time at New York Apple­seed, a nonprofit that helps enforce policies against school segregation. The key to successful protesting? “If there’s an issue you’re passionate about, research it and really understand it,” she advises. “Then just yell until someone hears you. And after people hear you, organize with them and have them yell with you.” — AM

Four years ago, the UCLA Civil Rights Project issued a chilling report, showing that New York had the most segregated schools in the country. Anyone willing to look already knew our schools were deeply segregated, of course. But we had somehow stopped paying attention. We treated segregation like it was a problem of the South, or of the distant past.

After the report — and prodded also by grassroots organizing, powerful journalism, and the symbolism of the 60th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education — we decided to hold a City Council hearing. That hearing stretched on for ten hours. Our conclusion: Separate, still, is not equal. And also: segregated schools cannot teach inclusive, multiracial democracy.