America's moral claim is based on its commitment to civil rights for all. Yet no issue seems as politically divisive as our current civil rights policies, which attorney Clint Bolick assails as "trickle-down civil rights" - bestowing entitlements on those with the greatest skills and resources but doing little to help people outside the economic mainstream.

By promoting race and gender preferences in jobs, government contracts, and college admissions; forced busing; and an apartheid-like system of racial gerrymandering, these policies deepen racial hostilities and undermine our commitment to individual rights while producing few tangible results.

Bolick explains in clear terms how the civil rights movement strayed off course and demonstrates what is needed to get it back on track. He challenges Americans to reclaim and reinvigorate the original civil rights vision by grounding it in individual empowerment rather than group rights. This bold book shows the way to heal the racial divide in this country and at long last fulfill America's promise of justice for all.