The Black Butterfly
Book description
The best-selling look at how American cities can promote racial equity, end redlining, and reverse the damaging health- and wealth-related effects of segregation.
The world gasped in April 2015 as Baltimore erupted and Black Lives Matter activists, incensed by Freddie Gray's brutal death in police custody, shut down highways and…
Why read it?
2 authors picked The Black Butterfly as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I’ve lived in Baltimore ever since I was released from prison. And one thing you can’t escape if you live here is the reality of the deep segregation of this city. If you look at the racial makeup of each neighborhood on a map, the Black neighborhoods make up the shape of a butterfly. This is what I witnessed my friend, Dr. Brown set out to interrogate when he began researching this book.
This book personally helped me contextualize my own experiences within these systems. It gave me a deeper understanding of everything that had been working against me leading…
From Chris' list on the criminal industrial complex.
When Lawrence Brown looks at the map of Baltimore, he sees two images: a white L and a Black butterfly. When the federal government drew red lines around neighborhoods where mainly Black people lived in the 1930s it created a chain reaction of disinvestment that continues to this day. On either side of the gentrified and tourist-focused downtown and inner harbor, beat the wings of a butterfly, or impoverished Black neighborhoods, including Sandtown-Winchester where Freddie Gray was from, that suffer the impacts of hypersegregation.
Brown, an expert in public health, not only shows how race shaped access to healthcare, money,…
From Mary's list on why Baltimore's problems are so hard to fix.
Want books like The Black Butterfly?
Our community of 10,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like The Black Butterfly.
Browse books like The Black Butterfly
5 book lists we think you will like!
- The best books to understand why Baltimore's problems are so hard to fix
- The best books about the criminal industrial complex
- The best picture books about civil rights heroes (besides Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks)
- The best books on women in the civil rights movement
- The best books to teach about the civil rights movement
Interested in Maryland, civil rights, and African Americans?
10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about Maryland, civil rights, and African Americans.