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The cover of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

Michelle Alexander, 2010

The War on Drugs built a system of mass incarceration that works as a new racial caste system, locking millions of Americans labeled criminals out of voting, jobs and housing.

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9 parts, about 30 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Argues that mass incarceration works as a racial caste system, redesigned for a colorblind era rather than ended
  • Shows how the drug war, police discretion and a lifelong criminal label lock people out long after prison
  • A civil rights lawyer who once doubted the comparison builds her case from court rulings, arrest data and history

Who it is for

  • People who care about racial justice but lack the data
  • Lawyers, public defenders and criminal justice reformers
  • Families of people living with a criminal record

What the summary covers

  1. Preface to the Tenth Anniversary Edition3 min
  2. Preface1 min
  3. Introduction4 min
  4. The Rebirth of Caste4 min
  5. The Lockdown3 min
  6. The Color of Justice4 min
  7. The Cruel Hand3 min
  8. The New Jim Crow4 min
  9. The Fire This Time4 min

Recommended by

  • Bill GatesMicrosoft cofounder and philanthropist

About the author

  • Michelle AlexanderAmerican writer, attorney and civil rights activist
    • Born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 7, 1967.
    • Graduated from Vanderbilt University and Stanford Law School.
    • Clerked for Justice Harry Blackmun at the U.S. Supreme Court and for Chief Judge Abner Mikva on the D.C. Circuit.
    • Directed the Racial Justice Project at the ACLU of Northern California from 1998 to 2005.
    • At the ACLU she launched the Driving While Black or Brown campaign against racial profiling by law enforcement.
    • Won a Soros Justice Fellowship in 2005, which supported the writing of The New Jim Crow.
    • Served as associate professor of law at Stanford Law School, where she directed the Civil Rights Clinics, and later held a joint appointment at Ohio State University.
    • Visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York from 2016 to 2021 and opinion columnist at The New York Times since 2018.

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