Same School, Different Class

by Kim Bancroft, David Waddell

"Same School, Different Class" is the unforgettable true story of two former classmates, one Black, one white, who reconnect decades after attending the same elite private school in Connecticut. In their dual memoir and in alternating chapters, they reveal to each other how race, confrontations with privilege, harship, and silence shaped not just their youth but the lives they would go on to lead.
The personal stories that David and Kim tell each other speaks to the radical power of listening, of facing history together, and of rewriting a racial and social narrative with heart. They show how honesty and love can prevail.
This book is currently offered on Blurb.

237 pages, Paperback

Published May 8, 2026

About the author

Time for a change! After teaching for 30 years, I turned to editing and writing larger works. First the 1890 autobiography of my great-great-grandfather, H.H. Bancroft, the founder of the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley (Heyday Books 2014). Next "The Heyday of Malcolm Margolin: The Damn Good Times of a Fiercely Independent Publisher," about Heyday Books' iconoclastic founder. Then I discovered the intriguing papers of my great-great-grandmother and her predecessor. These 19th-century stories comprise "Writing Themselves into History: Emily and Matilda Bancroft in Journals and Letters." I encourage all to examine legacy, that of our ancestors and our own lives, to save stories for future generations.

Reviews

[C.C. Hawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, poignant, deeply personal stories and accounts by two classmates who experienced the same school and space in such different ways. They knew each other but weren’t close friends while in school. Reuniting years after graduating and becoming good friends, they teamed up to tell their stories. The pair bravely allow us a view into their most intimate and vulnerable moments to help us understand how and why Americans continue to struggle with America’s dark history of slavery that continues to impact our lives today. This is a must read if you’ve attended an elite day or boarding school, intend to send your children to one of these institutions or just are curious about the intricacies of an educational experience that is vastly different from yours.

C.C. Hawk, Author, Slices of Life: Essays, Fiction, Memoir and an Alumna of an elite East Coast Boarding School