Dreaming in Color, Living in Black and White

Our Own Stories of Growing Up Black in America

“I constantly questioned myself as a child. All of the positive images of people I’d seen were white. To be beautiful, you not only had to be stick-skinny, with no behind, you had to have long silky blonde hair and blue eyes, a thin nose, and thin lips. I just didn’t measure up.” — Charisse Nesbit, Maryland

These true stories from every part of America tell what it was like growing up in a world where the color of people’s skin set them apart.