Margaret Kimberley

Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents

Prejudential is a concise, authoritative exploration of America's relationship with race and black Americans through the lens of the presidents who are elected to represent and govern all of its people.
Throughout the history of the United States, numerous presidents have been remembered as slaveholders, bigots and inciters of racial violence, but were others generally regarded as more sympathetic to the plight and interests of black Americans—such as Lincoln, FDR and Clinton—really much better? And what of all the presidents whose interactions with and impacts on the lives of black America are hardly considered at all? Over the course of 45 chapters—one for each president—Kimberley examines the condition of black America through the attitudes and actions of the highest elected official in the country.