"It's very hard to talk about education in this country without talking about the whole society in which it mainly fails to occur." -James Baldwin

Formation is a labor of love that delves into racism and its insidious effects on Black youth. Full of stories written from personal experiences, passion drips from the pen of John Sandy Campbell and love pours from the pages in this raw soul-shattering debut.

"Throughout my career, I have been blessed to freely exercise my right to explore, critique, challenge, and write critically about urban education and systems put into place that stunt the growth of Black children, in effect crippling their educational outcomes and ultimately damaging any possibility of their advancement in any realm, be it higher education, the workplace, and to a greater extent, society at large.

This freedom that I speak of was not a result of formal schooling, (in fact it was my entree into public schools where I began to feel the weight of racism) rather, this freedom was cultivated in my mind and heart as a young girl on my grandfather's knee, sitting at his table and listening to thought provoking conversations focused around race, education, community and family. I was one of the lucky ones. By God's grace, I happened to be born into a family led by a wise and measured man whose teachings were the building blocks that laid the foundation of my past, present, and future research in the area of psychological terrorism in k-12 urban education vis-a-vis Black children."

-J.S. Campbell