Carnegie Reporter Magazine Highlights the Power of Local Leadership

• The Great Immigrants comic series illustrates the inspiring contributions of naturalized citizens to their communities
• The Secret of Life of Librarians tells the stories of ten exceptional librarians who were selected for the 2024 I Love My Librarian Award
• Former Washington Post editor Martin Baron makes the case for objective, investigative, and local journalism as essential safeguards of our democracy
• Andrew Carnegie Fellow and political scientist Joshua P. Darr explains his research on the connection between local news and reducing political polarization
• Utah Governor Spencer J. Cox (R), Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D), and journalist Judy Woodruff talk about how to “disagree better”

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As national politics become increasingly polarized, local communities across the country continue to uphold democratic values through civic participation and service. The Summer 2024 edition of Carnegie Reporter magazine looks at what we can learn from these local efforts and explores what can be done to support and replicate them.

In this issue, the philanthropic foundation Carnegie Corporation of New York focuses on reducing political polarization by exploring the work of librarians, educators, journalists, national service members, naturalized citizens, and other civic leaders who are forging ties within their local communities and strengthening our democracy. The magazine includes insights from experts including leadership at the foundation, grantees, academics, and frontline practitioners on effective local initiatives, the challenges they face, and how to overcome them.

For the first time, the magazine includes original comics about naturalized citizens who have been honored by the Corporation’s annual Great Immigrants tribute. Every Fourth of July since 2006, the foundation has celebrated the extraordinary contributions of immigrants to American life, and this year it commissioned the creative storytelling studio Jongsma + O’Neill and illustrator Chuan Ming Ong to tell their immigrant stories. The magazine includes comics they produced in collaboration with three Great Immigrants: humanitarian Betty Kwan Chinn, educator Jean-Claude Brizard, and Maria Elena “Mel” Lagomasino, a trustee of the Corporation and 2010 honoree.

“In this issue of the Carnegie Reporter, we are focusing on the role of local leaders and the importance of our communities in strengthening democracy at a time of growing polarization,” says Dame Louise Richardson, president of the foundation. “We at Carnegie Corporation of New York are working to identify and support these leaders as they endeavor to rebuild the forces of social cohesion in our society. In this issue, you will read about some of these remarkable women and men.”

Among the articles:

The Great Immigrants Comic Series

To highlight the extraordinary contributions of immigrants to American life, the Corporation commissioned a new comic series to illustrate how naturalized citizens are contributing to communities across the country. The three Great Immigrants featured in the issue include Betty Kwan Chinn, a humanitarian who survived childhood homelessness and has devoted her life to helping those in need. “Inside my heart, I don’t want anyone to suffer what I suffered,” Chinn says.

The Secret of Life of Librarians

In a small, rural Arkansas town, the local library is meeting residents’ everyday needs. Through a “Library of Things,” librarian Clare Graham lends items from kitchen appliances to power washers. At the Queens Public Library in New York City, Fred Gitner and his team offer multilingual workshops guiding recent immigrants toward vital services such as health care and legal advice. These are among the little-known stories explored in the Secret Life of Librarians series that takes us to libraries nationwide to learn about civic leaders who are improving lives and drawing communities together.

The Case for Objective, Investigative, and Local Journalism

In an excerpt from his best-selling book, Martin Baron, the former editor of the Washington Post and a trustee of the Corporation writes that without democracy, there will be no independent press, and without an independent press, there can be no democracy. “We should not start our work by imagining we have the answers; we need to seek them out. We must be generous listeners and eager learners. We should be fair. And by that, I include being fair to the public: report directly and fearlessly what we find to be fact.”

Does Local News Reduce Polarization?

Local news is in crisis: more than half of American counties are now without access or have very limited access to local news. Political scientist and Andrew Carnegie Fellow Joshua P. Darr has been studying what the loss of local news means for American communities. In a Q & A, Darr writes: “When local media disappears, nonpartisan identity weakens, and divisive national news fills the void. But more and better local news has been shown to improve the civic life of communities.”

How to Disagree Better

Journalist and former Corporation trustee Judy Woodruff moderates a conversation with Spencer J. Cox, Governor of Utah (R), and Wes Moore, Governor of Maryland (D), about how to depolarize our country, the role that national service can play, and how to disagree better. “We need to recognize our differences instead of dehumanizing and attacking,” Cox says. Moore agrees: “We have to remember the historical contexts of the evolution of this country, of the evolution of our states. And I think if we do that and we’re willing to do what those who came before us did, which is go do the work and not just simply give up or retreat, then I think we are guiding ourselves to a better place.”

Additional highlights:

Inside a High-Poverty School District’s Exceptional Postpandemic Rebound

Across the country, students suffered historic learning losses after COVID-19 shuttered classrooms. The impacts were especially felt in poor school districts like Alabama’s Birmingham City Public Schools. Yet since the pandemic, Birmingham has achieved one of the country’s most dramatic academic recoveries, according to new research by Harvard and Stanford scholars with support from the Corporation. How did Birmingham succeed, and what can other districts learn from it?

How do Foreign Policy Decisions Affect Local U.S. Communities?

Four in 10 U.S. adults think foreign policy issues should be a top priority for the United States government in 2024, according to an AP-NORC poll — double the number reported in 2023. We invited five Carnegie Corporation of New York grantees — experts in the field of international peace and security whose foreign policy projects look at domestic impact — to explain how foreign policy decisions hit home for communities across the country.

For more information, visit the online issue of the Carnegie Reporter. Subscribe to receive the print version of the magazine and the foundation’s newsletters — these resources are always free.

The Reporter has been the flagship “magazine of ideas” for Carnegie Corporation of New York for more than two decades, assessing emerging trends and urgent challenges and offering ideas to inspire informed action. Readers are encouraged to republish or excerpt articles by seeking permission from the foundation.

About Carnegie Corporation of New York

Carnegie Corporation of New York was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Today the foundation works to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for the issues that Carnegie considered most important: education, democracy, and peace. @CarnegieCorp