About 800 students, parents and advocates attended the event, organized by student journalism nonprofit The Bell and school integration group New York Appleseed. Hannah-Jones urged Samuels to spell out how and when the city would act on recommendations from its School Diversity Advisory Group, including ending admissions screens that advocates say can reinforce segregation.

“Now you are the head of that system,” Hannah-Jones said, arguing that city leaders could no longer shift responsibility elsewhere. She told Samuels the audience wanted specifics rather than broad promises.

Samuels said the administration is forming working groups to develop proposals that account for integration and academic rigor, while engaging communities and preparing superintendents to lead the work. He argued that sweeping announcements can prompt organized opposition and said reforms should be developed with local communities.

That answer did not satisfy Hannah-Jones, who questioned why communities should be able to preserve admissions policies that produce racially or academically homogeneous schools. Samuels said admissions screens alone were not the solution to segregation and defended their role in schools serving students at particular academic levels. His response drew boos from some in the crowd.

The debate comes as Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration faces calls for a more detailed strategy to address racial and socioeconomic separation across a school system that remains among the most segregated in the country. Mamdani has identified integration as a priority, and Samuels previously led school mergers intended to advance that goal.

Hannah-Jones, a New York Times journalist and 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner, has also brought renewed attention to the issue through an essay about sending her daughter to a majority-Black, low-income school. At the time, Samuels was superintendent of Brooklyn’s District 13. After Hannah-Jones sought support, he assigned an additional teacher to help her daughter and other students who needed to catch up.

At Tuesday’s town hall, Samuels maintained that work toward integration was underway, but offered no firm timetable for putting a citywide plan in place.