The following interview is with a retired elementary school teacher in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Over 30 years, her community transformed from 50/50 black and white to mostly Burmese, Hispanic, and black - with fewer than 15 white children remaining out of 400. 🧵 "You spent your whole career at one school. Can you describe what it looked like when you started?"

I was an elementary school teacher for 30 years at the same school. It's a Title I school - high poverty. I liked the school. I liked the families. I liked the neighborhood, so I just stayed.

When I first started, the demographics were 50% black and 50% white.

Gradually, more and more Spanish-speaking families - mostly Mexican, but some Guatemalan - started moving into the neighborhood. And you could actually see the change. You could drive down the block and say, oh, that's a house where Mexicans live, because there would be flowers planted. The yard was clean. The houses were kept up.

You could really see the difference between their property and the one next door that was not kept up very well - the majority black families.

At the beginning, they were actually a net benefit.