Clementine Lue Clark

I was born to Jamaican parents, a Chinese father and Black mother. I grew up in Jamaica being called “de chinney gal” or “Miss Chin.” Then I moved to the United Kingdom and was treated very much like a West Indian immigrant with all of the stereotypes that entails. Now I’m living in the United States happily married to a White American, learning each day about what it is like to be in an interracial marriage. (I’m learning it’s like any other marriage.) In Boston, where I live surrounded mostly by educated people, being in an interracial marriage is quite normal. I have the privilege of rarely thinking about it.

William Winter, former Governor of Mississippi, speaks at Metropolitan Richmond Day Nov 8, 2007

Can we create an environment that encourages and rewards innovation and risk? Four hundred and fifty leaders from Richmond, Virginia, USA, wrestled with this question at Metropolitan Richmond Day organized by IofC's Hope in the Cities programme on 8 November 2007 as they considered the future of the region's schools.

Housing is about people-not just bricks, maintains a trail-blazing housing non-profit organization in Richmond, Virginia. Mary Lean discovers how giving people the best can transform no-go areas.