The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
by Michelle Alexander
21 jurisdictions · Banned 2018-2025 · Published
The New Jim Crow is Michelle Alexander's 2010 study arguing that mass incarceration functions as a contemporary system of racial control, banned or restricted in 21+ U.S. jurisdictions including state prison systems.
Why it was banned
The book has been notably banned from prison libraries in multiple states, which Alexander has cited as among the most ironic of the suppressions given the book's subject. It has been challenged in school libraries and college reading lists in Florida, North Carolina, and elsewhere.
Cited reasons
- divisive content claim
- political content
Primary states
New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida
Why it matters
The New Jim Crow reshaped American discussion of mass incarceration. Alexander's central argument, that the post-civil-rights legal system constructed a new racial caste through criminal justice, is now widely accepted by scholars across the political spectrum. The book has been used as the foundation for criminal justice reform organizing nationally for over a decade.
Themes
- mass incarceration
- criminal justice
- civil rights
Awards
- NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work
Where to buy
The Ledger recommends Black-owned booksellers. Each stocks this title or can order it.
- MahoganyBooksNational Harbor, Maryland · Founded
Independent bookstore specializing in books written for, by, and about people of the African diaspora.
- Marcus BooksOakland, California · Founded
The oldest independent Black-owned bookstore in the United States, named for political activist Marcus Garvey.
- Semicolon Bookstore and GalleryChicago, Illinois · Founded
Chicago's only Black woman-owned independent bookstore, with a mission to raise literacy rates among Chicago Public School students.
- Hakim's BookstorePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania · Founded
Philadelphia's oldest Black-owned bookstore, specializing in African American history, philosophy, and religion.
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Related banned books
Books in the catalog that share themes with this one.
Documented by The Ledger. A record of what Black America built and what was taken.
Book cover via Open Library. Editorial use under fair use.