Letter from the Editors

This edition first began in October of 2021, as we started writing a series on our school’s long history of racial reckoning. Along the way, we found story after story to be told, culminating in more than a dozen interviews with the people who love this school, all the way from alumni who graduated in the 1970s to students, parents, and faculty here today. We have a few thank yous to say for this publication.

First, thank you to all of our writers and editors for making this special edition possible. Thank you to our photography team and director Albert Tang for helping us tell the visual stories that we could not do with words.

Thank you to Mr. Cashwell, The Jabberwock’s sponsor, for reviewing his edition and for supporting our vi- sion. Thank you to the Governor’s School Foundation for giving us the resources to finance this first-ever color edition.

Thank you to Dr. Lowerre, Mr. Smith, and Dr. Williams for their help throughout this issue, and for continually trying to make Maggie Walker a more inclusive and welcoming place. If there is one thing we have learned through this reporting, it is that while Maggie Walker’s administration is not perfect nor infallible, it is composed of people who want to see this school become a more equitable place to learn.

Thank you to the alumni who supported us in our endeavors to raise awareness. They paved the path for us to continue the legacy of fighting for more equitable conditions in our community.

We are indebted to Ms. Kenya Hunter, who first reported the story of Maggie Walker’s long history and present challenges and whose article started this all. She guided us along this process of interviewing and writing, and kept us going. Lastly, thank you to our readers who made this special edition possible. Along the lines of James Baldwin, we love Maggie Walker more than any school in the world, and exactly for this reason, we insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

Love,

Mona & Annabel