"Created by Nikole Hannah-Jones, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, & The New York Times magazine"--Book jacket.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 495-550) and index.

Origins/Nikole Hannah-Jones -- The white lion/Claudia Rankine -- 1. Democracy/Nikole Hannah-Jones -- Daughters of azimuth/Nikky Finney -- Loving me/ Vievee Francis -- 2. Race/Dorothy Roberts -- Conjured/Honoree Fanonne Jeffers -- A ghazalled sentence after "my people...hold on" -- by Eddie Kendricks and the negro act of 1740/Terrance Hayes -- 3. Sugar/Khailil Gibran Muhammad -- First to rise/Yusef Komunyakaa -- Proof[dear Phillis]/Eve L. Ewing -- 4. Fear/Lelie Alexander and Michelle Alexander -- Freedom is not for myself alone/Robert Jones, Jr. -- Other persons/Reginald Dwayne Betts -- 5. Dispossession/Tiya Miles -- Trouble the water/Barry Jenkins -- Sold south/Jesmyn Ward -- 6. Capitalism/Matthew Desmond -- Fort Mose/Tyehimda Jess -- Before his execution/Tim Seibles -- 7. Politics/Jamelle Bouie -- We as people/Cornelius Eady -- A letter to Harriet Hayden/Lynn Nottage -- 8. Citizenship/Martha S. Jones -- The camp/ Darryl Pinckney -- An absolute massacre/Zz packer -- 9. Self-defense/Carol Anderson -- Like to the rushing of a mighty wind/Tracky K. Smith -- No car for colored [+] ladies (or, miss wells goes off {on} the rail) -- 10. Punishment/Bryan Stevenson -- Race riot/Forrest Hamer -- Greenwood/Jasmine mans -- 11. Inheritance/Trymaine Lee -- The new negro/Van Jordan -- Bad blood/Yaa Gyasi -- 12. Medicine/Linda Villarosa -- 1955/Danez Smith -- From behind the counter/Terry Mcmillian -- 13. Church/Anthea Butler -- Youth Sunday/Rita Dove -- On "brevity"/Comille T. Dungy -- 14. Music/Wesley Morris -- Quotidian/Natasha Trethewey -- The panther is a virtual animal/Jashua Bennett -- 15. Healthcare/Jeneen Interlandi -- Unbought, unbossed, unbothered/Nafissa Thompson-Spires -- Crazy when you smile/Patricia Smith -- 16. Traffic/Kevin M. Kruse -- Rainbows aren't real, are they?/Kiese Laymon -- A surname to honor their mother/Gregory Pardlo -- 17. Progress/Ibram X. Kendi -- At the superdome after the storm has passed/Clint Smith -- Mother and son/Jason Reynolds -- 18. Justice/Nikole Hannah-Jones -- Progress report/Sonia Sanchez.