A local public school is much more than a building where children go to receive an education. Schools can serve as anchors for neighborhoods, access points for services, and community gathering spaces. Additionally, schools are a place where many residents directly and frequently interact with government. What happens in a neighborhood when a local public school is threatened by closure? Or more drastically, what happens when mass school closures are taking place in neighborhoods throughout the city? Sally Nuamah's book, Closed for Democracy: How Mass School Closure Undermines the Citizenship of Black Americans, examines the political consequences of public school closures, featuring the disproportionate impact of school closures in Black communities and ways these closures shape political participation by and attitudes of Black Americans. This outstanding book offers important theoretical and empirical contributions to inform future scholarship on racial and ethnic politics, public policy, and urban politics.

Nuamah begins by tracking the extent of school closures nationally, showing the prevalence of mass school closures in many of the nation's largest urban school districts. Two cities—Chicago and Philadelphia—had among the highest levels of school closures, and Nuamah focuses on these two districts for her research. Her research