"Grapples with the cultural and social forces that have shaped our nation in the brutal crucible of race in five ... chapters--each addressed to a black martyr, from Breonna Taylor to Rev. Clementa Pinckney. Dyson traces the genealogy of anti-blackness from the slave ship to the street corner where [George] Floyd lost his life--and where America gained its will to confront the ugly truth of systemic racism"--

A globally recognized civil rights activist presents an unwavering history of American systemic racism, a first-hand view of what makes for effective activism today, and a vision for lasting, positive change.

Drawing on new sources, a leading scholar presents a groundbreaking story of policing and "riots" that shatters our understanding of the post-civil rights era, arguing that we cannot understand the civil rights moment without coming to terms with the astonishing violence, and hugely expanded policing regime, that followed it.