We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide

Carol Anderson’s White Rage asserted that as America achieves progress toward black equality, the systemic response is a racist backlash that rolls back wins. This adaptation for teens 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 young adult adaptation is written in an approachable narrative style that provides teen readers with additional historical context, and features archival images, a discussion guide, and resources for further reading.