Death at an Early Age

A book by Jonathan Kozol, Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools was first published in 1967. It won the National Book Award for Science, Philosophy, and Religion for 1968. The book describes Kozol's first year of teaching, which took place in the Boston public school system. Kozol recounts the deeply entrenched policies of racial segregation and inequality on the part of Boston Public Schools, testifies to a crumbling infrastructure in his Roxbury neighborhood, and documents the public outcry following his dismissal for the offense of teaching a Langston Hughes poem to his reading class. Reissue ISBN 0-452-26292-5