On This Ground: Hardship and Hope at the Toughest Prep School in America

The remarkable story of hope, determination, and resilience at a celebrated school in Newark, New Jersey, the students who thrive there, and a community that refused to let its children’s education become a casualty of a growing racial divide.

In 1967, as the city of Newark, New Jersey, was engulfed by civil unrest after the beating of a Black cab driver by white police officers, the monks of Newark Abbey stood on the roof of the monastery and watched their city burn. In the years that followed, as crushing poverty and racial tensions in the city worsened, some of the monks voted to leave—and St. Benedict’s Prep, the school they had run for over a century, was forced to close its doors.

On This Ground is the story of the monks who voted to stay put, who would soon reopen St. Benedict’s and devote their lives to educating the students who had become their neighbors. But it’s also the inspiring story of its students—many of whom have experienced tremendous tragedy and trauma—who show up every day and form the beating heart of the school, which is now widely considered one of the most successful inner-city educational movements in the country.

In a warm, reverent voice, veteran New York Times reporter and New Jersey native Anthony DePalma takes us through St. Benedict’s hallways, classrooms, and the streets of the complicated city of Newark to illuminate the astonishing ability to alter your own destiny, and how ultimately triumphant life can be, despite the trials, when leaders keep their promises and kids who are usually rejected are given the love they deserve.