Book Review: Arrested Mobility: Overcoming the Threat to Black Movement

After the murder of Renee Good in Minneapolis (MN) in January 2026, former St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said:

Our own biggest opponent is our own weaponized federal government who says put America first, but arrests American citizens.… I recognize Jim Crow…you show me an era where people had to carry papers to keep from getting harassed and arrested by government agents, I’ll show you an era of profound human rights abuses.… That’s un-American. (WCCO, 2026)

Hearing this searing sermon from Carter reminded me of Charles T. Brown’s (2025) book, Arrested Mobility: Overcoming the Threat to Black Movement. As I looked back to the cover of Brown’s book detailing Black mobility and the way it is policed in the United States, I could not help but see the white stripes stained in blood against the black background morphing from cell bars to the stripes of an American flag. Carter implored his fellow Americans to understand that people being herded, disappeared, and murdered across the country is not who we are as a nation. Yet, throughoutArrested MobilityBrown makes it clear that government actors, including urban planners, have made arresting the mobility of Black people an enduring part of America.

Over five chapters, Brown interweaves his personal story, interview excerpts from Black Americans, and statistics that elucidate arrested mobility: “The intentional and incomplete access to all means of movement in public and sometimes private spaces by way of deliberate overpolicing, which…made us less safe and limited social mobility” (p. 7).

To read the full book review, click here.