Chapter 17 Summary

The author reflects on the role that secrecy played in the public perception of Eric's death. Reeves and Wiley, he notes, declined to speak too openly about the case. Both men cite their anxiety over the potential incitement of vitriol as an excuse to keep quiet, especially with regards to Eric’s petty crime, but this approach ultimately backfired. The notion that there might be something to hide perpetuated the idea among the people of Benton Harbor that there was a coverup in progress, which suggested it must have been murder. This conclusion seemed all the more reasonable given the events of the Maben case.

In a guest editorial for the local paper, an organizer named Michael Green demanded answers: why had there been no progress on the case after fifteen months?

Chapter 18 Summary

Several years into his work on the McGinness case, Kotlowitz receives a call from Sherwin Allen, the superintendent of Benton Harbor schools, telling him he has a story.

Allen, the author learns, is a divisive and powerful superintendent—his reputation for turning failing schools around is unparallelled, and he seems to be doing the same in Benton Harbor. There’s a problem, though—many people in the area, mostly but not all white, want him recalled.

They had hired him two years before, after decades of turmoil in the district. There had been complaints, protests, and lawsuits by the NAACP citing de facto segregation, and students had continuously failed to thrive in under-resourced classrooms. Under the new superintendent, academic markers quickly began to improve. Allen treated school-related meetings as borderline-religious gatherings, often reading from the Bible and praying while rousting an energetic, devoted crowd.

Allen develops a following of devoted parents over the first year and is treated as a local hero who will surely shepherd their children to greatness. But soon, things began to get a little more complicated.