Unequal: A Story of America

by Michael Eric Dyson, Marc Favreau

New York Times bestselling author Michael Eric Dyson and critically acclaimed author Marc Favreau show how racial inequality permeates every facet of American society, through the lens of those pushing for meaningful change. 
 
The true story of racial inequality—and resistance to it—is the prologue to our present. You can see it in where we live, where we go to school, where we work, in our laws, and in our leadership.

Unequal presents a gripping account of the struggles that shaped America and the insidiousness of racism, and demonstrates how inequality persists. As readers meet some of the many African American people who dared to fight for a more equal future, they will also discover a framework for addressing racial injustice in their own lives. 

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Race, Middle Grade, Social Justice, Historical

368 pages, Hardcover

Published May 3, 2022

About the author

Michael Eric Dyson is an American academic, author, and radio host. He is a professor of sociology at Georgetown University.

Reviews

[Dustan]

People are rating this book as a 1-star before it's even released, with no review, and not mentioning that they had an ARC or anything?

Pretty clear-cut censorship attempt, there; it's going to the top of my read list, because while I won't give a rating without actually reading it like those giving it 1-star, I will fight against censorship every day of my life.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good intro to Black historical figures for young people. It’s a little dry but the stories are ranging and touch on many well known and less known people and their significance. The format lacks imagination and I wonder a bit about audience.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book because another Eric Michael Dyson book I wanted to read on Libby was unavailable and I’m not sorry. This is a YA book about how racial inequality permeates American history, told through stories about black Americans who stood up for equality from Ida B. Wells to Stacey Abrams.

[kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This should be required reading for every white person in the US.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the style and flow of this book in ways that other books try to deliver factual information textbook style, this one provides a face/name/situation to prove the various points about an unequal America.

You get some stars, then you get a picture of an individual, then you start the chapter about that person (and maybe even a second story/person as a bonus) to demonstrate the point before seamlessly moving into another area which included housing, voting, education, workers rights. The style of writing was focused and everything written was there for a reason, no extraneous information and that's why a middle schooler through high schoolers can get behind this one. As an adult reader and for an adult reader, many of the stories we have heard before HOWEVER, I was introduced to a handful of people from history that I knew nothing about and learned something from, so I call this a successful book and society and history which brings it right to to 2022.

[Miss Ryoko · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was absolutely fantastic... in a totally terrible way. But I expected nothing less going into this Michael Eric Dyson book. If you've been following my reviews you know how much I absolutely love his work because Dyson tells the hard truths that need to be said and in an unapologetic manner. The authors did a great job laying the basic foundations of the history of racism in this country through chapters that had a main focus, making it easy to cover certain topics without having to go into exhaustive detail. I particularly enjoyed the way this book was written - for a nonfiction book it was very engaging and really kept my interest.... even when the information being covered was rage inducing.

Per usual, as I always feel this way about all Michael Eric Dyson books, I wish this book was mandatory reading in all schools (the irony here is there is a chapter covering race and racism being banned in school curriculums all over the country). This information is so important and necessary for progress to ever be made in this country. We have to recognize and reckon with this history before we are able to fix it.

Well done Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau! Absolutely fantastic book!

[Trianna/Treereads]

Glad today's teens have this book. I found that I knew a lot of what this book covered (since I lived through some of it/had already read about it/for like two things - actually learned about it in history class), but appreciated how it's written easily and clearly for young people.

I did really appreciate that this book filled in some of the holes in my knowledge on various topics and also I did learn about quite a few historical figures that I did not know about.

This would be a great supplemental book for any US history class...since our textbooks don't cover most of these people/events!

The audio was a quick listen and read by Michael Eric Dyson.

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Should be required reading in every high school history curriculum.

[Clay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for mock printz

[Seth Arnopole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important capsule histories of people like Ida B. Wells, Pauli Murray, Ossian Sweet, Ruth Batson, and others.

[Patti Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This started off a little disjointed, but once i understood that the authors were connecting the past to the present (to what will be the future) I really connected to it. Excellent book.

[Book Shark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unequal: A Story of America by Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau

“Unequal” is a book of the true history of racial inequality geared toward young adults but recommended for all. Best-selling author Michael Eric Dyson and acclaimed author Marc Favreau takes the readers on a journey through the history of racism in America and resistance to it. This insightful 316-page book includes the following twenty chapters: 1. Mary Church Terrell Fights Back Against Segregation, 2. Ida B. Wells Exposes America’s Lynching Epidemic, 3. Buck Franklin Bears Witness to the Destruction of Black Wall Street, 4. Ned Cobb Confronts Racial Inequality at Work, 5. Dr. Ossian Sweet Breaks Through the Color Line to Find a Home in Detroit, 6. Pauli Murray Discovers the Key to Ending Segregation in Schools, 7. Daisy Myers Integrates the White Suburbs, 8. Malcolm X Launches a Struggle Against Police Brutality, 9. Fannie Lou Hamer Takes Back the Right to Vote, 10. James Meredith Integrates the University of Mississippi, 11. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Memphis’s Sanitation Workers Protest for Equal Pay, 12. John Carlos and Tommie Smith Raise a Fist for Black Pride, 13. Ruth Batson Uncovers Segregation in Boston, 14. Michelle Alexander Confronts the New Jim Crow, 15. Catherine Flowers, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, and Barack Obama Expose America’s Crisis of Environmental Racism, 16. Yusef Salaam Battles Racial Profiling, 17. Stacey Abrams Leads the Fight Against Voter Suppression, 18. Dr. Susan Moore Calls Out America’s Unequal Health Care, 19. The Black Lives Matter Movement Opens the Latest Battle for Racial Equality, and 20. Nikole Hannah-Jones Taps into the Power of History.

Positives:
1. A well-written and well-researched book, covering racism from a wide range of areas.
2. An important topic, racism and the social justice warriors who resist it.
3. The fight against segregation and its impact. “Many Black people traveling any distance depended on the Negro Motorist Green Book, a special travel guide that listed hotels, gas stations, restaurants, and other establishments that welcomed African American guests.”
4. Exposes lynching. “Some white people decided that it was time to send Black America a message. The goal of the lynch mob was to strike terror into the hearts of Black people everywhere, telling them that nowhere was safe from the threat of white violence. In all, between the end of Reconstruction and 1950, lynch mobs murdered over four thousand African American people in the South.”
5. Examines the destruction of Black Wall Street. “One by one, attackers set Greenwood’s homes on fire. Flames spread to every structure in the neighborhood, including churches, hotels, restaurants, offices, and even the local hospital. Anything that remained after the white looters had done their work was burned to the ground. In all, the arsonists destroyed eighteen thousand homes.”
6. Examines “sharecropping”. “The arrangement was known as “sharecropping,” but in truth, it was about taking, not sharing. Even in good years, a white plantation owner chiseled away at a sharecropper’s earnings with his pen: some here for rent, more there for groceries purchased at the plantation store, still more for fertilizer, seeds, and tools, all bought on credit.”
7. Discrimination in real estate. “More than 80 percent of all homes in Detroit used racial covenants to exclude Black buyers. And the city was in no way unique. All over America in the 1920s, racial covenants made it impossible for Black people to purchase real estate and move up the economic ladder.”
8. Segregation in schools. “Though it made no mention of her, Pauli Murray’s ideas had found their way into the landmark case that ended legal segregation in America: We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs… are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.”
9. The integration of the white suburbs. “On every single HOLC map, African American neighborhoods were marked as red. “Redlining,” as this practice came to be known, excluded Black people from one of the most important financial rescues in all of American history.”
10. Exposing police brutality. “But nothing approached the violence or scale of Detroit, in the summer of 1967. On the night of July 23, police raided a “blind pig”—an illegal after-hours bar—on Twelfth Street and arrested eighty Black Detroiters. Outraged at one more example of aggressive policing, the neighborhood erupted. By the next day, 483 fires blazed across the city. Four days of fighting left forty-three souls dead and thousands more injured. The rebellion ended only when tanks rolled into the city and food supplies began to dwindle.”
11. Examines voting rights suppression. “Instead, beginning in the 1890s, southern lawmakers made it nearly impossible for any Black person to vote. They created poll taxes (charging people money to cast a ballot), which most Black people couldn’t afford to pay, because they were so poor. And they established literacy requirements and other written tests a voter had to pass before being allowed to register. Because white people controlled the registrar’s offices (having stolen them after Reconstruction) and graded the tests, it was easy for them to block Black voters behind closed doors. And in state after state, that’s exactly what they did.”
12. Examines the integration of the University of Mississippi. “When they finally took their case to the US Supreme Court, the justices agreed—and, on September 10, 1962, they affirmed his right to attend Ole Miss. Bell, one of the architects of Critical Race Theory more than two decades later, said that he “learned a lot about evasiveness, and how racists could use a system to forestall equality.””
13. The protests for equal pay. “King had just announced what he called a Poor People’s Campaign. It was a controversial idea, even among his closest advisers. The idea was that poor people of all backgrounds could join together to demand higher wages and decent jobs for all Americans.”
14. Describes the Black pride movement. “Later, Tommie Smith explained the symbolism of their actions: My raised right hand stood for the power in Black America. Carlos’ raised left hand stood for the unity of Black America. Together they formed an arch of unity and power. The black scarf around my neck stood for Black pride. The black socks with no shoes stood for Black poverty in racist America. The totality of our effort was the regaining of Black dignity.”
15. Uncovers segregation in Boston. “It wasn’t just that Boston schools were racially segregated; they were becoming more segregated each year. Boston’s Black population was growing, as more and more southerners joined the Great Migration to the North, and because of the redlining that afflicted all northern cities, African Americans were forced to squeeze into the most overcrowded neighborhoods.”
16. Confronting the New Jim Crow. “Alexander discovered a shocking fact about the way that police make drug arrests and courts send drug offenders to prison. Even though Black and white Americans committed these offenses at roughly the same rates, Black people were up to four times more likely to get arrested and go to jail than white people, for the same crime.”
17. Environmental racism. “Dangerous parasites are not the only threat lurking in Black America’s water, and rural places such as Lowndes County are not the only places where environmental racism plagues African American communities. Cities, where so many Black people made their homes following the Great Migration of the early twentieth century, have become hot spots for environmental threats to their health and well-being.”
18. Examines racial profiling. “In Chicago, police department data showed that Black and Latino drivers were pulled over and searched four times as often as white drivers—despite the fact that white drivers were two times more likely to be carrying contraband such as drugs or weapons.”
19. Unequal health care. “They have also found that as many as half of all doctors and nurses hold false, biased beliefs that Black patients have a higher physical tolerance for suffering—even though there is no biological basis for this idea.”
20. The Black Lives Matter movement. “Many of the early Black Lives Matter activists found inspiration in the life of Ella Baker, the civil rights activist who worked for decades to build the Black freedom struggle from the ground up. Baker helped grow NAACP chapters in the South in the 1940s; she worked with Martin Luther King to push the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to the forefront of the fight against Jim Crow; and she helped found SNCC, the organization that would take the movement to new places and new victories.”
21. The power of history. “Critical Race Theory was created by a group of legal scholars who examined laws and court decisions that might be neutral on their face but that actually perpetuated racial inequality. It was developed as a way of looking at American society that helps explain how and why racial inequality has persisted.”
22. Discover more section provided.

Negatives:
1. Notes not included.
2. Lacks visual supplementary materials like timelines and charts.
3. Lacks depth, purposely so because it’s intended for a younger audience.

In summary, this book may have been geared for young adults but this mature adult was inspired by it. The authors did a great job of covering topics of interest. The pages turn by themselves as they have a way of captivating and enlightening the reader. Black history is American history, I have learned a lot from this book and most importantly it has piqued my interest to continue to learn. The book will upset you, the history is tragic and the discriminatory tactics used against our brothers and sisters infuriating, but we can only improve as a society if we know our history as it actually happened instead of whitewashing it. We need to do and be better, this book will help. I highly recommend it.

Further recommendations: “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You” by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, “The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism” by Jemar Tisby and Lecrae Moore, “The Myth of Equality: Uncovering the Roots of Injustice and Privilege” by Ken Wytsma, “Bad Faith” by Randall Balmer, “Christians against Christianity” by Obery M. Hendricks, “Racial Profiling: Everyday Inequality” by Alison Marie Behnke, “White Rage” by Carol Anderson, “Tears We Cannot Stop” by Michael Eric Dyson, “Under the Affluence” by Tim Wise, “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander, “The End of White Christian America” by Robert P. Jones, “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Medical Apartheid” by Harriet A. Washington, “White Trash” by Nancy Isenberg, “Slavery by Another Name” by Douglas A. Blackmon.

[Richie Partington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richie’s Picks: UNEQUAL: A STORY OF AMERICA by Michael Eric Dyson & Marc Favreau, Little Brown, May 2022, 368p., ISBN: 978-0-7595-5701-7

“The dark brown shades of my skin
Only add color to my tears
Oh, oh
That splash against my hollow bones
That rocks my soul
Looking back over my false dreams that I once knew
Wondering why my dreams never came true
Is it because I’m Black (uh huh)
Somebody tell me what can I do?”
– Syl Johnson, “Is It Because I’m Black (1969)

“If America isn’t for everybody, it isn’t America.”
– James Meredith (Chapter 10)

Two decades ago, when my eldest was in college, he spoke passionately about the writings of Dr. Michael Eric Dyson. Remembering my son’s enthusiasm, I was excited to learn that Professor Dyson had co-written a book for tweens and teens with Marc Favreau, the noted history author and editor.

UNEQUAL is a heartbreaking and hopeful examination of systemic racism in America, from the end of the Civil War right up into the current pandemic. Cover to cover, there is great research, great writing, and great storytelling. This is American history writing at its finest.

UNEQUAL follows this history chronologically over twenty chapters, each featuring the story of a Black American. Some of these activists, heroes, and victims are known by all and have already been the subjects of excellent books for young people; those include Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells, Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer and, of course, the Reverend Dr. King. Some of the featured figures are in the trenches today, fighting for change.

A few are lesser known. I loved reading about Pauli Murray who, in the early 1940s, was the only female student in her Howard University law school class. One day, ignoring the mockery of her fellow students amidst a heated discussion, Ms. Murray proposed that the NAACP had been pushing too hard on the “equal” side of the “separate but equal” doctrine:

"Fighting to get better facilities for Black people missed the point. she said. It was trying to fix the effects of segregation without going after the cause. And the cause, she pointed out, was separation itself--the act of segregating African Americans and treating them differently in the first place. Until they fixed this problem, civil rights activists would never achieve true equality for Black people.
'One would have thought I had proposed that we attempt to tear down the Washington Monument or the Statue of Liberty,' Pauli recalled. 'First astonishment, then hoots of derisive laughter, greeted what seemed to me to be an obvious solution.'
Pauli had gotten used to her classmates' reactions by that point, and she dug in. 'Opposition to an idea I cared deeply about always aroused my latent mule-headedness,' she said.
Separate was never equal, Pauli insisted. Separate, on its face, discriminated against Black people because separate meant that Black people were somehow different. Racism fed off this very idea. In her heart, in her gut, Pauli knew that calling some people 'different' was at the root of America's thorniest problems.
Plessy had to go. Black people needed nothing short of full equality, the equality promised to all citizens in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Pauli made a ten-dollar bet that day with her professor, a young legal scholar named Spottswood Robinson. Plessy v. Ferguson, she told him, couldn't survive another twenty-five years."

A decade later, her professor, who had accepted what he thought was an easy wager, ended up on the Thurgood Marshall team preparing arguments in Brown v. Board of Education. He dug out Pauli Murray's paper from his file cabinet, brought her ideas to the table, and that's how Pauli Murray provided the key to the historic Brown decision.

Chapter after chapter, UNEQUAL features stunning accounts about discriminatory laws, discriminatory enforcement of laws, and barbaric, sub-human treatment by doctors, police, and state legislatures. Throughout the years, America has turned a blind eye as Black moms, dads, kids, and entire communities have been mowed down by racist mobs and racist cops. The situation improved somewhat when the spread of mobile phones enabled witnesses to share proof of what they had seen, although most of the time, perpetrators were still not indicted and held accountable. Rodney King. George Floyd. Trayvon Martin. Michael Brown. Tamir Rice. Their stories and many others are recounted here.

UNEQUAL concludes with chapters on the Black Lives Matter movement and Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won a Pulitzer Prize after creating The 1619 Project for The New York Times.

Yes, UNEQUAL will be banned in states where lawmakers want young people to believe that slavery wasn’t so bad, and that racism just involves a few bad apples. They don’t want students to understand that systemic racism is very real, continues today, and must be addressed.

UNEQUAL is a hugely important book that will enlighten tweens and teens who are fortunate enough to read it. The American Library Association’s Newbery, Printz, Coretta Scott King, Sibert, and YALSA Nonfiction committees should all consider this essential work for recognition.
I truly believe that it can save lives and change lives. In a better America, this book would be taught everywhere.

If America is to become a place for everyone, young people must understand that housing discrimination, job discrimination, educational discrimination, involuntary sterilizations, and racist policing are historic facts. Until every child can feel fortunate to be born an American, things have got to change. And that change cannot come without a reckoning with the truth of America’s past and present.

UNEQUAL is the real deal. I urge you to read it, share it, teach it, and preach it.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
https://twitter.com/richiespicks
richiepartington@gmail.com

[Becky Linderholm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the was this book was written. Though each chapter centers an important figure, many other change makers are mentioned as well!

[Clifford Dent · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Compelling and Cogent Look at the History of Inequality in America

The noted African-American public intellectual Michael Eric Dyson has teamed up with Marc Favreau to present the OTHER side of American history -- the seamy side of the fabric of eloquent half-truths and outright lies which passes for the "history" with which we attempt to indoctrinate generation after generation of young (and older) Americans into believing that the powers-that-be in the United States have everyone's best interest at heart.

The African-American struggle for equality is the particular focus of this book -- but the authors make clear that other minorities in the United States have also felt the sting of institutional racism, and that other constituencies (women, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, etc.) have legitimate complaints against the U.S. power structure concerning chronic unequal treatment in word and deed.

This book purports to be an introductory book for "teenagers", but I believe that any thinking adult can profit from reading these authors' analyses and profiles and following their suggestions for further reading.

Highly recommended for all readers without reservation.

[Mariama Thorlu-Bangura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was quite the book to read. Dyson & Favreau, over the course of 20 specific incidents, present the reader with a window into racism in America. Now I must admit, I tend to find Dyson annoying whenever I see him in interviews. For me, he comes off as a bit too brash, often speaking loud as if that will make whatever point he's making more valid and authoritative. However, in this book, that brashness doesn't seem so glaring. Instead, his knowledge of the issue shines through. This is the type of book that incites great emotion as you read it. And yet, as frustrating as it is to read about the ignorance that abounds in this country concerning Black/Brown people, it is still necessary. At the end of one chapter, a series of questions are posed that cover the range of incidents presented in the book. Those questions will continue to exist if the attitudes and misconceptions that have existed since the days of slavery, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights era, and post Civil Rights don't change. I believe that is the challenge presented by the authors: not just to give an overview of racism in America, but also to force us to reassess ourselves and the way we view each other. Definitely a worthwhile and extremely necessary read!!

[Danielle Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

TWs: racism, police brutality, mentions of slavery, racial inequality

Books like Unequal are so incredibly important, perhaps now more than ever. I was born and raised in Texas, and thus am a product of the Texas public school system. Though it's been 15 years since I graduated from high school, I can say with a high certainty that a lot of what is in this book (events predating 2007) was not taught to me in a Texas school. As an adult, I have had to seek out books like Unequal that depicts US History in a truthful light, even when it's not pretty.

Looking at the distribution of ratings and the reviews that have been posted so far on Goodreads, I believe it's a fair assumption that those who rated the book 1 star did so without reading the book, and are in the "This is CRT!" crowd.

This book is uncomfortable at times. It's not pleasant to read about systemic racism. It forces us to confront issues that we may be willingly or ignorantly unaware of. But it's so important to learn, because how else can we make things better?


#BlackLivesMatter


Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

[Britta Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in a way that kids can understand, Unequal breaks down historical and present-day issues in America to teach kids about the inequalities that have persisted for centuries in America. Even as an adult, I learned more about the Tulsa Massacre in this book than I've read in any other book before. While this book tackles complex subjects, the authors' writing style simplifies the topics in a way that upper-elementary and middle-grade readers can easily understand.

This powerful book discusses racism's implications on college admissions, FHA loan discrimination, integration of schools, voter suppression, environmental racism, and more. Kids and teens will be able to relate to many of the chapters, such as the chapter about the Central Park Five, because the book often talks about inequality to other kids and teens. Sadly, ongoing racism means this book won't make it to every school library, but I will definitely buy a copy for my daughter.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[aiden :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an incredibly informative book written in a great style for young adult readers. The narrative, person-focused style made the stories feel familiar and relatable, and the statistics and direct quotes added to the impactfulness of it. A lot of these stories were familiar to me, but hearing the specific details were shocking. I would highly recommend as a great starting point for Black American history.

My one critique is that I wished the book would've touched on Black queer figures in American history. There have been many prominent queer Black people who have made impacts in Black American history, like Bayard Rustin who was one of the lead organizers of the March on Washington or the HIV/AIDs activist Phill Wilson. At the VERY least, call Bayard Rustin by his name instead of referring to him as Martin Luther King, Jr.'s friend. It just would've felt like a fuller picture of Black American history if some of these non-cis/het figures were mentioned. Otherwise, I thought it was a great, informative book!

[Marcie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am very glad I read this and have a lot to say and think about especially after watching Michael Eric Dyson promote it. The structure frustrated me because it was not what I expected from the table of contents. Each person written about was done in such a way that many of the stories were told in a way that gave the author the chance to reiterate and repeat, which probably makes for good teaching, but not necessarily for good reading. I will most likely reread this and have a completely different reaction and I certainly hope most middle and high school teachers do read it whether they use it as a teaching tool or not. Not sure this has spoilers, but I think I'll keep it hidden until I have more to say that I really want to share.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource for young people; I can definitely see why it won the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction (which is what led me to read it). I listened on audio so maybe something got lost there but there seemed to be a huge lack of cohesion between chapters and people brought up. I would often get confused when it seemed to jump from person to person and through different time periods. Maybe just me. At times a little dry but overall so informative and included lots of history I hope they will teach in schools today as I didn’t learn about many of these topics in school in the 90s/early 00s.

[Adam Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished Unequal: A Story of America by Michael Eric Dyson and Marc Favreau — such a powerful and important read. I think everyone should pick this one up, especially those who might not fully understand the experiences people of color have faced in America and still face today.

One line that really stuck with me:

“Ensuring that white supremacy doesn’t succeed will take a movement that understands and builds on our common history… It is up to all of us to study the past, and to marshal and carry forward the freedom dreams of those who have come before us.”

A needed reminder that learning our shared history is part of building a better future.

[Frances Chan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn’t originally realize this was a YA book, but it’s still engaging and well-written enough that adults would certainly benefit from it too. Full of important aspects of American history that I personally never learned about growing up, and is a great starting point for those looking for a starting place before learning more about one particular issue or historical figure. Chapters are centered around specific historical people, but each chapter expands to include a lot of helpful background context and parallel histories.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors provide chapter after chapter illustrating how racism is baked into the United States. There are many contemporary examples to illustrated that we've not left racism in the past. Most chapters focus on one individual to illustrated a theme, and there is a good mix of female and male and famous and less or not famous. I appreciated the spotlight on racism in the northern states, but did wonder why the racist acts and policies of western states were not included in the mix.

Read for Librarian Book Group

[Fatimah Omar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dyson Delivers Powerful History Lesson. We can never get enough of the details of our history as Americans. Michael Eric Dyson tells our story in small chapters so we can use each segment as reference material. The deliberate acts of torture and violence leveled on us as a people whether overt or discrete is devastating to our humanity. We must face this truth because it empowers us to stand up today and realize we are still on the battlefield. Read and cherish this book.

[Murray · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this YA nonfiction book looks at the system racism in America and he looks at the various issues in chronological order using well known and not so known black americans. He addresses lynching, red lining, segregation, voting rights, and mass encarceration to name a few. Looking at historical figures like Ida B. Wells, Pauli Murray, Fannie Lou Hamer, and other others and how they fought racial justice and the authors encourage the readers to continue to fight.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael Eric Dyson presents some of the biggest issues that have prevented an equal playing field for all Americans in a clear manner that will be easy for teens to follow and understand. Some of the topics include The Tulsa Race Massacre, redlining practices, voter suppression, and the extension of Jim Crow laws into modern day prisons. This would be a good follow up to Jason Reynolds' Stamped.

[Amanda Shepard (Between-the-Shelves) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The formatting of this works so well as a history of racism in the United States, connecting things that happened in the past to things that are currently happening now. It would work as an excellent book for any high school curriculum, especially in a history or current events class.

I was also introduced to people that I hadn't known before, and I appreciated that Dyson gave light to people that maybe aren't talked about in US history classes. Well written, and I highly recommend it!

[Brendan E-M · Rating 4 out of 5]

In each chapter, Dyson pairs a brief description of recent injustices with a detailed account of more distant historical injustices, showing that the past is not past. It is easy for me to decry historical decisions as blatantly racist, but Dyson's attention to events of today made me think more clearly about the racist effects of current policies, which are often seen as having two legitimate political positions.

[Hélène · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a sad history we have. No wonder Republicans wish to erase it from the school libraries. We must keep reading. We must keep our Blacks safe. We must stand up to white supremacy. Beginning with local government schools, and health care facilities, all employers and businesses. So far, I find our collective silence conspicuous. We should be ashamed. Excellent book. Compelling read.