Local history, because of its immediacy to people’s daily lives, has the potential to impact participants in ways that larger histories cannot. By bringing the history of a community’s immediate surroundings to life, local history can help make the past legible and also act as a conduit to an appreciation for broader historical inquiry. It is through the prism of local history that a collective consciousness rooted in historical inquiry can arise within a community, a consciousness that has the potential to act as a counter to the historical weight of racial and economic injustice wrought by capitalist institutions across the 20^th and into the 21^st century. Historical inquiry into these institutions has the potential to provide a roadmap to new horizons of social justice.

As a work of public history, this project seeks to make the often abstract historical forces that construct a community accessible to the larger public. By making these forces concrete, both the school and the broader community can better understand the past in order to make sense of the present and gain potential insight into the community’s future. Public engagement with Northside's history will provide a launching pad for future historical inquiries by students, staff and the wider community.