Southlake
Southlake, Texas, seems to have it all: stately homes, intense civic pride, and above all, terrific schools. So when a video surfaced in 2018 showing Southlake high school students chanting the N-word—and when Black residents came forward to share stories of racist harassment and bullying—the school board vowed to make changes. But the unveiling of the Cultural Competence Action Plan set off a backlash that’s consumed Southlake, fueled by a growing national crusade against critical race theory. Hosted by NBC News national reporter Mike Hixenbaugh (host of the hit podcast Do No Harm) and NBC News correspondent Antonia Hylton, Southlake tells the story of how one idyllic city became the test case for a new political strategy with national repercussions.
Episodes
Beautiful Southlake, Texas, seemed too good to be true—until a video emerged of white high school students chanting the N-word. But it was the school district’s plan to confront racism that really sent residents on the warpath. Hosted by reporter Mike Hixenbaugh and correspondent Antonia Hylton, Southlake is a six-part series about belonging—and backlash—in an American suburb.
Southlake, Texas, is an immaculate, largely white suburb 30 minutes from Dallas. It’s a magnet for well-off parents looking for public schools that will get their kids into top-tier universities — and it doesn’t hurt that the town’s Carroll High School Dragons routinely compete for the state football championship. Frank and Robin Cornish, a Black couple, moved to Southlake in the 1990s after Frank fell in love with the place, and h...
Southlake’s leaders try to bring the community together in the weeks after the viral N-word video. But inside the halls of Carroll High, Black students aren't feeling heard. In the midst of the turmoil, 17-year-old Raven Rolle secretly records her emotional showdown in the principal’s office with a white student who insists that anyone should be able to say the N-word. Meanwhile, the school district is forging ahead with a plan to ...
Facing a wave of backlash to its proposed Cultural Competence Action Plan, Southlake’s school board tries to find middle ground — but winds up angering everyone. The school board meeting room turns into a battleground, as scores of conservative parents line up to explain their objections to any changes to the curriculum or disciplinary measures designed to protect students of color. Behind the scenes, with the help of powerful figu...
Parents in Southlake discover a new label for what's been bothering them about all this diversity, equity and inclusion talk: critical race theory. A new fixation on the academic concept muddies the debate, drowning out the voices of students who’d come forward with stories about racism. Kimberlé Crenshaw, one of the founding scholars of CRT, sheds light on the national battle over the theory, warning of dire consequences. And Tuck...
The election to fill two school board seats takes center stage—and becomes a referendum on the school district’s diversity plan. At a secretly recorded meeting, members of Southlake Families PAC grill a prospective candidate about conservative political causes, from opposition to Black Lives Matter to abortion. As school board candidates debate whether Carroll's code of conduct is enough to protect students, a queer 16-year-old tak...
It’s Election Day in Southlake, Texas — time to see if all the fighting over the school district’s Cultural Competence Action Plan translates into votes. A handful of candidates and supporters who want to see new diversity programs rally in Town Square, across from a much larger, rowdier crowd of those backing the conservative slate. “It’s a great town,” one voter shouts over her shoulder. “We want to keep it that way.” After the v...
Five months after the high-stakes local election in Southlake, the city is gearing up for yet another contentious vote. One of the school board members who supported the diversity plan, retired Air Force Col. Dave Almand, is stepping down, and the battle over diversity programs is at the center of the fight to replace him. But he’s far from the only leader to leave a role in public schools this year following attacks from parents o...
The fight over diversity in Southlake’s Carroll Independent School District is back in the headlines and has a new focus — books. Teachers are worried about a new Texas law that limits instruction on contentious topics, and one of them secretly records a meeting in which a Carroll administrator offers an unexpected piece of advice: If teachers share books about the Holocaust with students, the administrator says, then they should ...
A mother named Sharla publicly accuses a high school teacher in Grapevine, Texas, of using a graphic novel called “The Prince and the Dressmaker” to convince her child to change genders. Reporters Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton set out to investigate the allegation. Sharla’s child, Ren, and Ren’s English teacher, Em Ramser, tell them a different story.
Conservatives are gaining power in Grapevine, fueled by a once-fringe movement that calls on evangelicals to control the seven key “mountains” of American society — including education. A cellphone company with a Christian nationalist agenda heeds that call and sets its sights on winning school board seats in Grapevine, following an example set a year earlier in the neighboring city of Southlake.
CORRECTION (Oct. 4, 2023, 08:40 p.m....
Amid a growing anti-trans backlash, Ren devises a plan to get out of Texas — and away from her mother. In Grapevine, Sharla’s claim that teacher Em Ramser “infected” her child with lies about gender triggers online attacks, leading Ramser to consider leaving the profession.
Weston Brown, 28, sees a video of his homeschooling mother calling for dozens of books on sexuality and gender to be banned from public schools in another Texas school district. To counter her political activism, Weston publicly shares his story of growing up gay in a fundamentalist Christian family. Feeling pressured by parents and school officials, Em Ramser removes LGBTQ symbols from her classroom and no longer recognizes the te...
Evangelical activists open a new front in their campaign to impose their version of biblical morality in public schools — at the Texas statehouse. While legislators debate bills requiring the Ten Commandments and banning mention of gender identity in classrooms, three nonbinary students share the trauma they’ve endured at Grapevine High. Meanwhile, a coalition of progressive parents and disillusioned conservatives pledge to retake ...
Grapevine goes to the polls in a contentious school board election driven by the fight over the role of religion and LGBTQ inclusion in public schools. As the dust settles, Ren reflects on the impact of her mother’s allegations. And, after months of feeling as if she’s had to erase herself, Em Ramser reclaims her voice.
In an exclusive audio excerpt from Chapter 1 of “They Came for the Schools: One Town's Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America's Classrooms,” author Mike Hixenbaugh uncovers Southlake’s history, demonstrating how policies meant to protect the town from outside development a half-century ago helped plant the seeds for conflicts over diversity, equity and inclusion—conflicts that are now tearing apart suburbs across...
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