While recent bestselling works like The New Jim Crow and The 1619 Project present in-depth scholarship on the legacy of enslavement, In the Shadow of Freedom uniquely brings together the scholarship, journalism, history, criticism, and legislation to provide what many readers have been seeking: a starting point, an introduction that is both comprehensive and accessible offering readers a compelling examination of the intertwined issues of over-policing, violence, the death penalty, the war on drugs, red-lining, and racial oppression unpacking in clear terms the effects of centuries of anti-Black racism directly leading to mass incarceration.

In the Shadow of Freedom is a wake-up call for all people seeking justice and ethical – as well as religious -- responses and collective solutions to the systemic racism that continues to plague society.

Alessandra Harris earned her degree in comparative religious and Middle Eastern studies from San Jose State University and began her writing career with an online magazine for the African American Community in the San Francisco Bay area. Harris is a co-founder and former contributor to Black Catholic Messenger. Essayist, analyst, commentator, religion writer, and novelist, her work has also appeared in America, Critical Theology Journal, The Catholic Worker, National Catholic Reporter, and US Catholic.