School Stories

Much of Hope in the Unseen’s success could be attributed to the detailed reporting and the access Suskind had in Cedric’s high school, and later, his university.

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Ron Suskind challenged the American Dream when he began reporting A Hope in the Unseen, published in 1995. The maxim that working hard guaranteed success looked very different for the “other America.”

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Ron Suskind’s A Hope in the Unseen explains how and why poverty is cyclical in this country.  More importantly, the book shows (not tells) why it is so difficult, nearly impossible, for impoverished Americans to break that cycle and “make it out.” The main character in the book, Cedric, finds himself in a position all too typical of young African […]

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Ron Suskind’s “A Hope in the Unseen” opens as Cedric Jennings memorizes SAT words in his Washington, D.C. classroom rather than attend an assembly where his name would be called—and he would be mocked—for being an honors student. Such is how Cedric lives as a student attending Frank W. Ballou Senior High, described as “the […]

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