homepage

The New Jim Crow

homepage quotes

"Now and then a book comes along that might in time touch the public and educate social commentators, policymakers, and politicians about a glaring wrong that we have been living with that we also somehow don't know how to face. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander is such a work"
— The New York Review of Books

"An explosive debut ... alarming, provocative and convincing."
— Kirkus Reviews

About/decription quote

“The New Jim Crow offers a devastating account of a legal system doing its job perfectly well. We have simply replaced one caste system with another one.”

— Forbes Magazine

"[C]arefully researched, deeply engaging, and thoroughly readable."
— Publishers Weekly

Excerpt page quote

“Invaluable. . . . The New Jim Crow is a timely and stunning guide to the labyrinth of propaganda, discrimination, and racist policies masquerading under other names that comprises what we call justice in America.”

— Daily Kos

Buy page quote

“[An] instant classic.... The New Jim Crow is a grand wake-up call in the midst of a long slumber of indifference to the poor and vulnerable.”

— Cornel West

About the author page quote

“Alexander is absolutely right to fight for what she describes as a ‘much needed conversation’ about the wide-ranging social costs and divisive racial impact of our criminal justice policies.”

— Newsweek

Other writings page quote

“We need to pay attention to Michelle Alexander’s contention that mass imprisonment in the U.S. constitutes a racial caste system. . . . Her analysis reflects the passion of an advocate and the intellect of a scholar.”

— Marc Mauer, Executive Director,
The Sentencing Project,
author of The Race to Incarcerate

Contact page quote

“We need to pay attention to Michelle Alexander's contention that mass imprisonment in the U.S. constitutes a racial caste system. . . . Her analysis reflects the passion of an advocate and the intellect of a scholar.”

— Marc Mauer, Executive Director,
The Sentencing Project
author of The Race to Incarcerate

Media Pages side image

Media pages quote

“Michelle Alexander’s book offers a timely and original framework for understanding mass incarceration, its roots to Jim Crow, our modern caste system, and what must be done to eliminate it. This book is a call to action.”

— Benjamin Todd Jealous,
President and CEO, NAACP

Events page side image

Events pages quote

“Alexander’s brave and bold new book paints a haunting picture in which dreary felon garb, post-prison joblessness, and loss of voting rights now do the stigmatizing work once done by colored-only water fountains and legally segregated schools. With dazzling candor, Alexander argues that we all pay the cost of the new Jim Crow.”

— Lani Guinier, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Reviews/praise page quote

"A powerful analysis of why and how mass incarceration is happening in America, The New Jim Crow should be required reading for anyone working for real change in the criminal justice system.

—Ronald E. Hampton,
Executive Director,
National Black Police Association

Study guides page side image

Take action pages quote

“[Alexander] sees the rise of mass incarceration as opening up a new front in the historic struggle for racial justice. And, she’s right. If you care about justice in America, you need to read this book!”

— Glenn C. Loury, Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of Economics, Brown University