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Anthony DePalma

Biography

Anthony DePalma

Anthony DePalma is the author of ON THIS GROUND, THE CUBANS, THE MAN WHO INVENTED FIDEL, HERE: A Biography of the New American Continent, and CITY OF DUST. He was an education reporter and foreign correspondent for the New York Times for 22 years and continues to write for the newspaper, as well as other publications. He lives in New Jersey.

Anthony DePalma

Books by Anthony DePalma

On This Ground: Hardship and Hope at the Toughest Prep School in America
by Anthony DePalma - Education, Nonfiction, Social Sciences

In 1967, as the city of Newark, New Jersey, was engulfed by civil unrest after the beating of a Black cab driver by white police officers, the monks of Newark Abbey stood on the roof of the monastery and watched their city burn. In the years that followed, as crushing poverty and racial tensions in the city worsened, some of the monks voted to leave --- and St. Benedict’s Prep, the school they had run for over a century, was forced to close its doors. ON THIS GROUND is the story of the monks who voted to stay put, who would soon reopen St. Benedict’s and devote their lives to educating the students who had become their neighbors. But it’s also the inspiring story of its students who show up every day and form the beating heart of the school, which is now widely considered one of the most successful inner-city educational movements in the country.