Some teaching innovations arise from a combination of good intentions, last-minute planning, and incredible luck. Colgate University hired me in late July 1997 as a visiting professor for the fall semester. As I scrambled to finish my dissertation and move my family, only a few days remained to pull together the syllabus for a course on Race and Education. I wanted to begin this contemporary course with an historical focus, delving into African-American experiences with school desegregation during the mid twentieth century, but could not decide on which of the many excellent historical case studies to assign. The bookstore wanted my order as soon as possible. So I ordered two books—David Cecelski's Along Freedom Road and Vanessa Siddle Walker's Their Highest Potential—hoping that at least one would arrive on time. When both magically appeared on the bookstore shelves a day before the first class, I decided to innovate and revised the syllabus. Half of the students would read Cecelski; the other half would read Walker. Despite some initial confusion, my students began to engage in serious discussions over historical interpretations of school desegregation, demonstrating a level of depth that would not have happened had I assigned only one book to the entire class.