Michelle Alexander brings audiences profoundly necessary and meaningful insights on the practice of mass incarceration that plagues the U.S. justice system, as well as eye-opening conversation on how we can end racial caste in America.

In her acclaimed best-seller, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle peels back the curtain on systemic racism in the American prison system, which the New York Review of Books described as “striking in the intelligence of her ideas, her powers of summary, and the force of her writing.” With equal force and candor on stage, she breaks the silence about racial injustice in the modern legal system to reveal how mass incarceration has come to replace segregation.

This event kicks off The University of Akron’s Rethinking Race event series, a two-week forum of events focused on facilitating “courageous conversations designed to promote inclusive excellence” regarding race and race-related issues. All events are free and open to the public.

Free tickets are available for pick-up at the EJ Thomas Hall ticket office Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. beginning February 1st.

Thank you to our sponsors the County of Summit ADM Board, Mercury Plastics, Goodyear, FirstEnergy Foundation, FedEx Custom Critical, Alpha Phi Alpha Foundation of Akron, Ilene Shapiro’s Summit County Department of Job and Family Services, the Akron Community Foundation, the City of Akron, Philip and Paulette Thompson, and Dr. Sheldon Wrice.