Mehrsa Baradaran's The Color of Money traces the history of Black banking from the Civil War to the present, revealing the structural barriers that have prevented Black wealth-building. Baradaran, a law professor who specializes in banking, shows how Black-owned banks were championed as a solution to racial economic inequality by figures from Booker T. Washington to Richard Nixon. Yet these banks, serving impoverished communities and denied the subsidies and protections available to white institutions, have repeatedly failed. Baradaran argues that Black capitalism, while appealing as a bootstrap narrative, cannot overcome the wealth gap because it treats as individual what is fundamentally structural. She traces how federal policy has subsidized white wealth through homeownership, education, and business development while systematically excluding Black Americans. The book is particularly strong on how the Jim Crow economy worked, not just through explicit discrimination but through differential access to credit and capital. Baradaran writes accessibly about complex financial history, making visible the mechanisms that perpetuate inequality. The Color of Money offers no easy solutions but suggests that addressing the racial wealth gap requires acknowledging its origins in public policy and committing to equally substantial public remedies. Essential reading for understanding economic inequality.