INTO THE BRIGHT SUNSHINE: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights, by Samuel G. FreedmanMinneapolis may be the city most notorious for anti-Black police violence in the world. Out of the top 100 largest metropolitan areas, Minneapolis ranks 99th in the gap between Black and white earnings. In June, the Department of Justice cited this statistic in its investigation of the Minneapolis Police Department. From routine instances of excessive (and sometimes deadly) uses of force to everyday racist taunts, the Police Department disproportionately abused Blacks and Native Americans with little to no accountability. Reflecting on these patterns, the U.S. attorney general, Merrick Garland, said, “They made what happened to George Floyd possible.”And yet, eight decades ago, as the journalist Samuel G. Freedman writes in his riveting new biography, “Into the Bright Sunshine,” the Minneapolis mayor and future presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey made some progress in dismantling prejudice in the city’s Police Department.

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Persons: Young Hubert Humphrey, Samuel G, Freedman, George Floyd, Derek Chauvin, Merrick Garland, “, Hubert Humphrey Organizations: Civil Rights, “ Minnesota, ”, Department, Justice, Minneapolis Police Department, Police Department, Minneapolis, city’s Police Department Locations: Freedman Minneapolis, United, Minneapolis, U.S