Racial Uncertainties – Mexican Americans, School Desegregation, and the Making of Race in Post–Civil Rights America: American Crossroads

"Racial Uncertainties is an innovative, well-researched, and well-written book that pushes the boundaries of the field. Olden takes the story of segregation out of the South and examines it in the context of the regional racial lexicon of the multiethnic, multiracial West. Her analysis shows how Brown v. Board of Education has ramifications far beyond the African American population and demonstrates the multiple complex strategies different groups used to challenge school segregation."--Natalia Molina, author of A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community

"Are Latinos white or nonwhite? This question has riddled historians and other scholars for a long time. In Racial Uncertainties, Olden argues that the answer depended on the articulation and relationality of Spanish, Indigenous, and Black Identities, with real-world consequences in the arenas of schooling, housing, and law. Her book on Denver--a relatively unexplored urban landscape that is also representative of other southwestern cities--is a critical contribution to our understanding of the Latino past, present, and future."--Geraldo Cadava, author of The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Political Identity, from Nixon to Trump