The Criminalization of Black Children

“Provides a case study on race in Chicago’s juvenile justice system throughout the first half of the twentieth century. . . . Highlights the particular vulnerabilities that young African Americans face in a legal system supposedly designed to protect children’s innocence.”—Journal of African American History

“Brings significant insights to the fields of juvenile justice, childhood studies, and African American history.”—American Historical Review

“As a solid basis for social work advocacy . . . [The Criminalization of Black Children] offers a well-organized collection of historical accounts of how the juvenile justice system of Chicago created a racialized set of structures and procedures for the engagement and treatment of Black children during the domestic migration of Black families.”—Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work

“Agyepong’s innovative take on the role of black children in shaping juvenile justice procedures is critically important for so many fields of history, including African American history, incarceration studies, and the history of gender and sexuality.” — Marcia Chatelain, Georgetown University

“Agyepong makes a compelling case for the centrality of black youth to understandings of delinquency, dependency, and, by extension, criminality at the foundations of the juvenile justice system.” — Davarian L. Baldwin, author of Chicago’s New Negroes: Modernity, the Great Migration, and Black Urban Life