***I was granted an ARC of this via Netgalley from the publisher.***

The black community in the United States has had a complicated relationships with the office of the President of the United States. In the book, Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents, Margaret Kimberly examines the relationship and the attitudes both private and public and their actions or inaction of each presidents of the US towards the black community. Kimberly forces the readers to recognize the reluctance of US presidents to recognize the humanity of blacks in America, if they did at all, in exchange for political security in office. Those who did take steps did so when they had no other choice to capture the black vote. No bars are held back from any president. There are a few things I feel are overstated and I would liked to see an even deeper analysis of each president but I feel like this was a good introduction to the presidents and their complex interactions with the black community.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars. Would recommend to a friend.

This book is very informative. There is a lot the history books left out. Very interesting concept on how slaves, slavery, race relations, etc was handled by all presidents. It held my interest and I will recommend it to many that I know. I am very glad that I was given the honor of reading the ARC of this book. This book should be required reading. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest opinion. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on this review. Kudos to the author!!!

I thought this was going to be a book that answered the question: “given what we know about each president, which ones were in fact racists?” Instead, it pursued this assignment: “find at least one instance of racism in every president or his administration, and use it to support a claim that he was (or is) a racist.” As far as i know, nothing presented here was wrong, and it certainly illuminates the historical prevalence and persistence of racial inequality and injustice in this country. But to paint every individual who has ever held the office of president as a racist is a stretch. Such a conclusion undermines the theory that it’s meant to support. I mean, if everyone’s a racist, then no one’s a racist. The definition of racist collapses if there’s no such thing as a non-racist.

The writing was plain and straightforward. The research, though very limited and laser-focused, was original. The book was readable, and provocative. I didn’t dislike it, but i’m not sure i can really recommend it. I don’t think it really advances the discussion very well.

This is an interesting account of each president from Washington on down to the present time. What they have done for the blacks and what they promised and never did. Also includes some of the story of the movement of the Indians as well.