![\"Journalist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/de50ef9ed632db0ae5387f8741bfa15e02-nhj-ks-th.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
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\n Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and New York City schools chancellor Kamar Samuels had a tense conversation at the Washington Irving Campus on Tuesday.
\n Photo: Nia Prater\n <\/p>\n
The Knicks home opener<\/a> against the 76ers wasn\u2019t the only highly anticipated matchup playing out in Manhattan on Tuesday evening. Less than 20 blocks away at the Washington Irving Campus, about 800 education advocates, students, and parents packed an auditorium to watch journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones<\/a> face off with New York City schools chancellor Kamar Samuels in a contentious one-on-one. \u201cWhile they said it\u2019s going to be a conversation, it\u2019s about to be an interrogation,\u201d Hannah-Jones said at the start, drawing applause from the crowd. It was an accurate description of what followed.<\/p>\n The conversation was the marquee event of a town hall co-hosted by the school-integration advocacy group New York Appleseed<\/a> and the Bell<\/a>, a student-journalism organization.<\/p>\n A month ago, Hannah-Jones reignited the school-integration debate with a New York Times Magazine essay<\/a> detailing the challenging aftermath of her decade-old decision<\/a> to send her daughter to a segregated public school in Brooklyn. When Mayor Zohran Mamdani <\/a>was later asked about the essay<\/a> and his plan to address the problems it illustrated, he signaled\u00a0that his administration was in the process of developing a plan but provided slim details as to what it might be. Samuels didn\u2019t seem to have more news to share at Tuesday\u2019s town hall either \u2014 a fact that didn\u2019t go over very well onstage or in the seats.<\/p>\n Hannah-Jones thanked Samuels for agreeing to take part in the event and for his past work tackling segregation when he served as a superintendent, acknowledging that previous mayors likely limited how much he could accomplish. But, she added, \u201cThere is no buck to be passed now. You head the system. So while I appreciate the work you have done, today we want to talk about the work you will do.\u201d<\/p>\n When she asked Samuels if he had a \u201creal and substantial\u201d plan for system-wide school integration and when that would be made public, he responded without those specifics. Hannah-Jones interjected: \u201cNo, I know you were coached not to actually answer my question. My question is: When will we see a plan to address comprehensive integration across the city?\u201d<\/p>\n Samuels insisted that the outline of the plan can already be seen. \u201cFirst of all, part of it is making sure that you are engaging and being thoughtful with communities, which is why I\u2019m here,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd secondly, it\u2019s also making sure that you are building the structures to have those conversations and build the capacity of superintendents who are going to have to lead the work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t believe the best way to integrate schools is by large proclamations,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen that happen before and we\u2019ve seen that that hasn\u2019t necessarily worked because you have an organized resistance against that.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cWe will have and we will come to you with a more robust conversation. But right now, there are things we are already doing. And so this is not a matter of being coached to not answer your question.\u201d<\/p>\n By this point, it was clear that many members of the audience were not satisfied with what Samuels had to say \u2014 or rather, what he hadn\u2019t come prepared to say.<\/p>\n In response, Hannah-Jones pointed to reports put out in 2019 by the School Diversity Advisory Group<\/a>, a panel of educators, experts, and scholars assembled under former mayor Bill de Blasio <\/a>who made numerous recommendations<\/a> about how to tackle school integration, but very few were implemented. \u201cThese issues have been studied,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was a task force that was very well equipped to study. They came up with recommendations. So why not just adopt the recommendations?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Samuels pointed to how screened admissions, which the SDAG recommended getting rid of in elementary and middle schools, went away during the pandemic and how some schools returned to that process in the years that followed, while others did not. \u201cIt\u2019s important to me that we engage those communities again to actually see are these screens working for its intended purpose or what is it that our goals are.\u201d Samuels began.<\/p>\n Hannah-Jones volleyed back the chancellor\u2019s response. \u201cWhat\u2019s the intended purpose of a screen?\u201d she asked to more cheers from the audience.<\/p>\n The crowd also joined in on the interrogation. When the chancellor spoke of having the \u201cnecessary conditions\u201d in place to address segregation, one woman shouted, \u201cCreate the conditions!\u201d When Samuels, as he has before, raised his recent creation of five district-based community working groups<\/a> \u2014 an effort expected to expand to additional districts down the line, one audience member shouted, \u201cWhat\u2019s your timeline?\u201d<\/p>\n When Samuels started to respond, saying this was something the administration was working on, there were audible groans throughout the room.<\/p>\n Hannah-Jones chimed in: \u201cSo there\u2019s not a timeline. You have to understand kind of the discontentment. It\u2019s ten months in. This is not a surprising conversation. This is not a new issue. So ten months in, when a timeline can\u2019t be offered, you can understand why people feel like that means you are just delayed.\u201d<\/p>\n In brief remarks given onstage prior to his sit-down with Hannah-Jones, Samuels framed the matter of solving school segregation as an ongoing conversation, one he implored parents to be a part of. \u201cWe need you to stick with us, even when these conversations get hard, and they certainly will,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Despite the many tense exchanges, the chancellor also indicated he would be up for another round. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do a part two,\u201d Samuels said after a planned question-and-answer session had to be\u00a0cut short.<\/p>\n Hannah-Jones quipped, \u201cOh, you\u2019re a brave man.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Intelligencer\u00a0Newsletter<\/p>\n Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n