3 Books Published by Chelmsford Press on AALBC — Book Cover Collage

The Chains of Black America: The Hammer of the Police: The Anvil of the Schools is a description of how two great institutions of American government—the education and criminal justice systems—often hinder, rather than enable, the achievement of equal opportunities for the descendants of enslaved Africans.

The book is about the caste status of African Americans, rather than about “people of color,” or impoverished Americans, because of the specific history of African Americans and the way in which their oppression affects others. It is perhaps not too much to say that until descent from enslaved Africans is no longer a cause for lack of equality of opportunity, the United States will never be a just society.

Each chapter, beginning with the national survey in Chapter One, includes demographic, health, income, wealth, and economic mobility data, followed by sections on the criminal justice and education systems and concluding with attempts at modeling a more equitable society. This modeling is extended nationally in a final chapter.

There are chapters on eight cities: Chicago, Cleveland, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, and Rochester, New York. Each of these has a significant, highly segregated, African American population. In each, African American incarceration rates are many times higher than those of White, non-Hispanics, and educational outcomes are much less favorable for African American than for White, non-Hispanic, students. There are many other cities where these conditions prevail, such as Minneapolis, Buffalo, Montgomery and Miami, but eight examples should suffice as examples of how caste is enforced in America.

Public education is under attack today from those who do not believe with John Adams that “opportunities and advantages of education” should be available “in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people.” Adams specified that the provision of the “opportunities and advantages of education” is a public duty, not a source of private profit, and that those opportunities and advantages should be available to everyone, not only to the privileged, and everywhere, not just in wealthy suburbs. This resource book includes demographic and educational data for each group for the nation as a whole and for each state. It also includes information by national origin. There is district data for those districts with large numbers of minority students. The data presented here shows that in general the opportunities for a good education vary with race, ethnicity and economic status. Educational opportunities for all students vary with location. The variation between states and school districts within states is striking. And almost everywhere the opportunities available to the descendants of slaves are fewer than those for others, with the exception of some American Indian tribes. This resource book is primarily intended to be of use to those in the general public interested in the education of minority students. Educators in schools, in local district offices and in state departments of education may find it useful. It may serve as a convenient reference for journalists and policy makers.

Public education is under attack today from those who do not believe with John Adams that “opportunities and advantages of education” should be available “in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people.” Adams specified that the provision of the “opportunities and advantages of education” is a public duty, not a source of private profit, and that those opportunities and advantages should be available to everyone, not only to the privileged, and everywhere, not just in wealthy suburbs. This resource book includes demographic and educational data for each group for the nation as a whole and for each state. It also includes information by national origin. There is district data for those districts with large numbers of minority students. The data presented here shows that in general the opportunities for a good education vary with race, ethnicity and economic status. Educational opportunities for all students vary with location. The variation between states and school districts within states is striking. This resource book is primarily intended to be of use to those in the general public interested in the education of minority students. Educators in schools, in local district offices and in state departments of education may find it useful. It may serve as a convenient reference for journalists and policy makers.