This text on controversial American social issues covers topics like: integration and civil rights; President Clinton's race initiative; poverty; education; the environment; democratic participation; disability rights; and corporate welfare.

Poverty and race -- two of America's most salient, and seemingly intractable, domestic problems -- form the cornerstone of this volume. Featuring contributions by some of the most progressive thinkers on these subjects, the book focuses on the key questions as we begin the new century. From the possibility of achieving true integration (as opposed to mere desegregation), environmental justice, education and its role as counter to structural poverty, to the promise (and lack thereof) of recent anti-poverty policies, Challenges to Equality shines an unflinching light on some of the most important issues we face as a society.