“Nearly five in ten white families and nine in ten black families endured poverty at some point during the Depression.”

Why was the rate of poverty so high for black families in the 1930s? The version of American history that I learned in high school decades ago never explored this question. In fact, I don’t recall learning much at all about laws in the last century that made things worse for people of color.  Until I read These Truths, I didn’t know that loan, relief and insurance programs created as part of the New Deal often specifically excluded black people.  Ibram X. Kendi was right: you need to see the prevalence of racist policies before you can understand their consequences.

Lepore, Jill. These Truths: A History of the United States. W.W.Norton & Co., 2018, p. 440.