Urbana, Ohio • Like many Americans, I left my small Ohio town for college and then followed professional opportunities to a larger city. My working-class parents hadn’t gone to college, but I did, thanks to nurturing K-12 schools and to the federal government’s Pell grant program for poor kids, of whom I was certainly one.

Over the years I have worked as a journalist and author, dropping back into Urbana for holidays and reunions. But around 10 years ago I began to go for longer stretches, to look in on my aging mom.

My hometown still had the same postcard-cute facade, but I quickly realized something drastic was underway. For the first time I noticed Confederate flags flying in a town once heralded as an Underground Railroad hub.

I didn’t recognize the place in which I had once known

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