Aired on September 6, 2026

• Assimilation, Resegregation, Charter schools

Imagine growing up in a neighborhood of tight-knit families that included excellent teachers at the neighborhood school that you and all your friends could walk to and share a rich educational and cultural experience. Now imagine a change that sends you — and your friends who live across the street — to a different school with strangers who lived elsewhere and might have totally different lives and backgrounds. “Going To School in Black and White: A Dual Memoir of Desegregation” by Cindy Waszak Geary and LaHome Smith Romocki shares their different personal memories and deeply researched reporting that chronicles how desegregation offers unique opportunities for deepening our understanding about implicit biases and stereotypes. Listen in and meet our guests:

After three decades of work in global public health, Cindy Waszak Geary (Hillside Class of ’73) turned to creative non-fiction writing, weaving together personal experience with social and cultural histories. Her first book, Going to School in Black and White, co-authored with LaHoma Smith Romocki, describes how they as two teenage girls—one black, one white—each were altered by a court-ordered desegregation plan for Durham, NC in 1970. She recently published a second book, also a memoir, Ancestral Landscapes. A graduate of UNC-CH, she has continued to live in Chapel Hill most of her adult life, and now also spends part of her time in the mountains of western NC, where she has deep ancestral roots. She is the mother of Emily and Max and the grandmother of Daisy.

LaHoma Romocki has held senior leadership global health positions with extensive field experience in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Romocki has an undergraduate degree from Duke University, both masters and PHD from UNC-CH. She is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Public Health Education at NCCU. Romocki is working to build the capacity of the next generation of the public health workforce and health care administrators. She has led study abroad programs and advises students interested in pursuing careers in the health. She is a resident of Granville County and is active in many organizations throughout the community.

“On The Porch” is hosted by Randolph ”Randy” Voller. He is also the publisher of Chatham County Line. Randy welcomes guests to the show who are from the communities of art, academia, business, and politics for friendly and informative conversations. “On The Porch” airs every Sunday at 6 and 11am, then 6 and 9pm on WCHL-FM 97.9. The show also streams on ChapelBoro.com. Current and previous shows of “On The Porch” are posted as on-demand, ad-free podcasts at ChapelBoro.com, Spotify and Apple Podcasts
To be a guest on the show or send us a comment, email: ontheporch@wchl.com