This eagerly awaited book brings together, for the very first time, Barack Obama's most important writings on the Black Lives Matter movement. Throughout this work, we can clearly discern his acute sensitivity to America's difficult racial issues--a sensitivity that is often sadly missing in today's, highly charged, politicized discourse. "When people say Black Lives Matter," he proclaims, "this isn't a matter of us comparing the value of lives. This is recognizing that there is a particular burden that is being placed on a group of our fellow citizens. And we should care about that. We can't dismiss it."
For Obama, Black Lives Matter was never just a slogan. Thus, this book also includes Obama's highly personal reflections on actual individual black lives which have exerted a powerful and lasting influence on the struggle for racial justice, both in America and throughout the world. They include not only moving profiles of such historical giants as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and Nelson Mandela, but also heartfelt eulogies for such American teenagers as Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, Jr., both of whose lives were cut much too short, indeed, before either of them could reach the age of 19. These lives mattered ... just like all black lives matter.
As the first black president of the United States of America (and indeed, of any major Western democratic country), Obama was often called on to comment on racial concerns. From his own personal experiences,
Obama will be remembered for many things. He was the first black editor in chief of the Harvard Law Review, the first black President of the United States, and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet, in my mind, he will be most remembered for his message of hope. And this volume of his reflections on the subject of race and black lives shows us why he and his message of hope are so sorely missed.
From the Forward by Jamal Michael West
