Michael Johnston

After graduating from Yale in 1997, Michael Johnston came to the Mississippi Delta to teach at Greenville High School as part of the Teach for America program. He taught English at Greenville High School in one of the poorest school districts in the country. What he saw during his two years of teaching there — the daily struggles with racial discrimination, poverty, drug addiction, gang violence, and sexual abuse — went in to his first book, In the Deep Heart’s Core. His book is filled with powerful stories and the haunting beauty of the Mississippi Delta in all its tragic history. Ultimately a hopeful book, in the book’s introduction, Robert Coles calls it “a compelling and important moral witness to educational efforts today.” Today, Johnston is enrolled at Yale Law School while living in Colorado and working on a U.S. Senate campaign for Tom Strickland. He plans to graduate in May 2003 and hopes to work in school administration.

(Article first posted September 2002)