Haitians of Springfield: An Oral History

How far would the media go to lie about a true story if an election was on the line? “It’s been debunked. It’s all a hoax. It never happened.” That was the message from the start—don’t believe your eyes, don’t trust the people who live there, don’t ask what changed, and don’t question the approved narrative. But in Springfield, Ohio, a struggling American town was told to absorb a massive cultural transformation at breakneck speed—and then ordered to stay quiet about the consequences. In Haitians of Springfield, the first-ever book covering this American migrant crisis, New York Times bestselling author Joshua Lisec tells the full story of what happens when one culture’s norms begin superseding another’s, when a local way of life is willed into submission without a vote, without a voice, and without meaningful consent. Rust-belt Springfield has struggled for decades amid slowed job prospects, strained services, fragile neighborhoods, and a forsaken generation left to wonder if things can ever get better. Then thousands of Haitian migrants arrived in a community with little room to absorb the shock.