Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights

Bob Moses's work to organize black voters in Mississippi famously transformed the political power of entire communities. Nearly forty years later, Moses is organizing again, this time as teacher and founder of the national math literacy program called the Algebra Project.

Moses argues for a crisis in math literacy in poor communities as urgent as the crisis of political access in Mississippi in 1961. Through personal narrative and impassioned argument, he shows the lessons of the civil rights movement at work in a remarkable educational movement today.

Reviews

"Bob Moses . . . shows us why math literacy for all children is a key next step in the ongoing fight for equal citizenship." —Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children's Defense Fund

"Robert Moses is the towering activist/intellectual of his generation--a grassroots freedom fighter of quiet dignity and incredible determination for over forty years. He and Charles Cobb, Jr., have written the definitive book on one of the most important projects of youth empowerment and citizenship of our times." —Cornel West, author of Race Matters

"If Chapter 1 of Mr. Moses's Mississippi odyssey was about voting, Chapter 2 is about algebra. They merge in . . . Radical Equations. ... The themes—equality, empowerment, citizenship—ripple through like ribbons, tying the two experiences in the same long-term struggle." —Jodi Wilgoren, The New York Times

"An almost legendary civil rights organizer in Mississippi during the 1960s, now blazing trails in education, Bob Moses tells a powerful and compelling story."—Julian Bond, chairman of the board, NAACP