Long Way to Go: Black and White in America Book

Jonathan Coleman uses the city of Milwaukee--one of the most segregated in the country--as the lens through which to consider race in America. Black Milwaukeeans suffer an unemployment rate of about 20 percent, the result of the city's losing 60,000 jobs between 1979 and 1983 as it changed from a manufacturing to a service economy. The great success of Long Way to Go is that it shows us the human faces that lie behind the statistics, people like Georgette and Maron Alexander. After losing his high-paying manufacturing job, Maron Alexander found work paying $6 an hour, while his wife makes $5.50 an hour as a cook. They manage to feed their children and are sending their oldest daughter to college, but, at times, Maron Alexander can't help thinking that with his service insurance policy, his family would be better off if he were dead. Read More