Red Emma’s

About Black Stats: African Americans by the Numbers in the Twenty-first Century

There’s no defeating white supremacist myths without data—real data. Black Stats is a compact and useful guide that offers up-to-date figures on Black life in the United States today, avoiding jargon and assumptions and providing critical analyses and information. Monique Couvson has compiled statistics from a broad spectrum of telling categories that illustrate the quality of life and the possibility of (and barriers to) advancement for a group at the heart of American society. With fascinating information on everything from disease trends, incarceration rates, and lending practices to voting habits, green jobs, and educational achievement, the material in this book will enrich and inform a range of public debates while challenging commonly held yet often misguided perceptions.

About Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

On the day fifteen-year-old Diamond from the Bay Area stopped going to school she was expelled for lashing out at peers who constantly harassed and teased her for something everyone on the staff had missed: she was being trafficked for sex. After months on the run, she was arrested and sent to a detention center for violating a court order to attend school. A decade later, Black girls continue to be the fastest growing population in the juvenile justice system.

On the tenth anniversary of its publication, Pushout, Monique Couvson’s groundbreaking book, hailed by educator Lisa Delpit as “imperative reading,” remains as urgent and necessary as ever. Couvson chronicles the experiences of Black girls across the country whose complex lives are misunderstood, highly judged—by teachers, administrators, and the justice system—and degraded by the very institutions charged with helping them flourish. Painting “a chilling picture of the plight of Black girls and women today” (The Atlantic), Couvson exposes a world of confined potential, and supports the rising movement to challenge the policies, practices, and cultural illiteracy that push countless students out of school and into unhealthy, unstable, and often unsafe futures.

This tenth-anniversary edition is truly a book “for everyone who cares about children” (The Washington Post), serving as both a call to action and a testament to the lives and futures we must protect.

Monique Couvson (formerly Monique W. Morris), president/CEO of Grantmakers for Girls of Color and co-founder of the National Black Women’s Justice Institute, is the author of several books, including Pushout, Black Stats, Sing a Rhythm, Dance a Blues, Charisma’s Turn, and Girls, Unlimited (all from The New Press). Her work has been featured by NPR, the New York Times, MSNBC, Essence, The Atlantic, TED, the Washington Post, Education Week, and others. She lives in New York.

Lisa Snowden is CEO and cofounder of Baltimore Beat, a digital and print-based news product based in Baltimore City. Lisa draws on decades of leadership experience to reimagine a new approach to news and storytelling that highlights and strengthens community. With over 15 years of rich experience in local journalism, she’s shaped Baltimore Beat into an innovative and inclusive platform, focusing on literary reportage and insightful, impactful reporting.