50 Years of Assimilation: From the Midwest to the Wild West and All the Blackness & Whiteness In Between

Author Wanda Lee-Stevens was born in 1963, the same year Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech called for citizens of all colors to have the opportunity to pursue the American Dream. In 50 Years of Assimilation, she explores her own pursuit of The Dream in the form of an open letter to Dr. King. Her book chronicles her life, from her loving childhood home in Detroit during the turbulent ’60s and ’70s, all the way across the country to her adulthood in the progressive and multicultural San Francisco Bay area. She relies on her Detroit sensibilities to navigate the challenges of education, work, friendships, and family, always with the goal of getting in, fitting in, and making it. Along the way, the author asks Dr. King, “is this what you saw? Is this what you meant?” She explores the psychology of how we Americans seek Dr. King’s “freedom” within the societal confines of race, racism, and post-Civil Rights (and “post-racial”) confusion. In 50 Years of Assimilation, Wanda Lee-Stevens poses timely and urgent questions: What does MLK’s dream of freedom look like in the 21st century? And are we really living out our Dream?