Book Review: “We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide” by Carol Anderson & Tonya Bolden
“We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide” by Carol Anderson & Tonya Bolden
Genre: Non-fiction, Social Issues, Politics
Page Length: 288 pages (hardcover edition)
Synopsis:
Carol Anderson’s White Rage took the world by storm, landing on the New York Times bestseller list and best book of the year lists from New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Chicago Review of Books. It launched her as an in-demand commentator on contemporary race issues for national print and television media and garnered her an invitation to speak to the Democratic Congressional Caucus. This compelling young adult adaptation brings her ideas to a new audience.
When America achieves milestones of progress toward full and equal black participation in democracy, the systemic response is a consistent racist backlash that rolls back those wins. We Are Not Yet Equal examines five of these moments: The end of the Civil War and Reconstruction was greeted with Jim Crow laws; the promise of new opportunities in the North during the Great Migration was limited when blacks were physically blocked from moving away from the South; the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision was met with the shutting down of public schools throughout the South; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 led to laws that disenfranchised millions of African American voters and a War on Drugs that disproportionally targeted blacks; and the election of President Obama led to an outburst of violence including the death of black teen Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri as well as the election of Donald Trump.
This YA adaptation will be written in an approachable narrative style that provides teen readers with additional context to these historic moments, photographs and archival images, and additional backmatter and resources for teens. (description from Goodreads)
Review:
We Are Not Yet Equal is an insightful book about the history of civil rights with a deeper focus on law. Though it’s aimed at a younger audience, I felt that it could be read by older children and adults alike. The book follows the timeline of history pointing out historical events and legislature from the era of the civil war to the 21st century. It highlights moments such as the Great Migration, the case of Brown vs. Board, and other significant moments in civil rights/political history.
I loved this book and I appreciated the solid timeline layout as well as the diagrams about legislature passed that made it easier for the reader to understand. I also like the inclusion of photos that referenced the events discussed in the book to really connect readers with the text. Though a lot of the material was familiar to me, I learned a lot of my new things about information I was taught years ago and even things I was unfamiliar with before reading this book:
- How the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper in the early 1900s was central to the Great Migration
- How the launch Sputnik spurred STEM education
- The Education Act
- The Voting Rights Act
- The case of Shelby County vs. Holder
I think any reader will be able to educate information about civil rights history through reading this book. It’s a great resource and starting point for anyone who wants to research Civil Rights history and politics. I found a lot of great resources that were cited in the back in the back of the book, that I wanted to check out for further reading.
*Trigger warning: Though this was an insightful book, I will say at times it was difficult to read due to some of the graphic descriptions violence, death, and racial slurs.
Final Verdict:
FTC Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for a fair and honest review from Bloomsbury Children’s Publishing.
