Our intent in developing this list of resources is for us, as a church, to use it to develop a better understanding of racism and the Black experience in America. We wanted to provide a manageable list covering a number of issues within racism including a Christian perspective. Beyond this list our education will continue with interviews, discussions, and listening to help us prayerfully wrestle with the things we have done and the things we have left undone so that we can act with kindness, reject racism and increase justice.
FOR ADULTS
christian perspective on racism
BOOKS:
Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True Solidarity (2020), by David W. Swanson, pastor and author. “In this simple but powerful book, Pastor David Swanson contends that discipleship, not diversity, lies at the heart of our white churches' racial brokenness…. Before white churches can pursue diversity, Swanson proposes that we rethink our churches' habits, or liturgies, and imagine together holistic, communal discipleship practices that can reform us as members of Christ's diverse body.”
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America (2017), by Michael Eric Dyson, professor, author, ordained Baptist minister, and radio host. Frank and searing, “Dyson’s book is a deeply personal call for change that includes moving personal recollections; profound cultural analysis; and guidance for moral redemption. Dyson argues that if we are to make real racial progress we must face difficult truths, including being honest about how black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted.”
Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism (2016), by Drew G. I. Hart, author, activist, and professor in theology in the Bible and Religion department at Messiah College. The author provides an approachable introduction to the sin of racism and white supremacy in America and in the church; a difficult but important message for “white Christians who want to better understand racism
and learn what reconciliation and justice look like. The final chapter offers a hopeful path forward.”
The Cross and the Lynching Tree (2011), by James H. Cone, theologian, best known for his advocacy of black theology and black liberation theology. “Both the cross and the lynching tree represent the worst in human beings and at the same time a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning. While the lynching tree symbolized white power and black death, the cross symbolizes divine power and black life, God overcoming the power of sin and death. For African Americans, the image of Jesus, hung on a tree to die, powerfully grounded their faith that God was with them, even in the suffering of the lynching era.”
Jesus and the Disinherited (1949) by Howard Thurman. “In this classic theological treatise, the acclaimed theologian and religious leader Howard Thurman (1900-1981) demonstrates how the gospel may be read as a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. Jesus is a partner in the pain of the oppressed and the example of His life offers a solution to ending the descent into moral nihilism. Hatred does not empower--it decays. Only through self-love and love of one another can God's justice prevail.”
Rediscipling the White Church: From Cheap Diversity to True Solidarity (2020), by David W. Swanson, pastor and author. “In this simple but powerful book, Pastor David Swanson contends that discipleship, not diversity, lies at the heart of our white churches' racial brokenness…. Before white churches can pursue diversity, Swanson proposes that we rethink our churches' habits, or liturgies, and imagine together holistic, communal discipleship practices that can reform us as members of Christ's diverse body.”
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America (2017), by Michael Eric Dyson, professor, author, ordained Baptist minister, and radio host. Frank and searing, “Dyson’s book is a deeply personal call for change that includes moving personal recollections; profound cultural analysis; and guidance for moral redemption. Dyson argues that if we are to make real racial progress we must face difficult truths, including being honest about how black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted.”
Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism (2016), by Drew G. I. Hart, author, activist, and professor in theology in the Bible and Religion department at Messiah College. The author provides an approachable introduction to the sin of racism and white supremacy in America and in the church; a difficult but important message for “white Christians who want to better understand racism
and learn what reconciliation and justice look like. The final chapter offers a hopeful path forward.”
The Cross and the Lynching Tree (2011), by James H. Cone, theologian, best known for his advocacy of black theology and black liberation theology. “Both the cross and the lynching tree represent the worst in human beings and at the same time a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning. While the lynching tree symbolized white power and black death, the cross symbolizes divine power and black life, God overcoming the power of sin and death. For African Americans, the image of Jesus, hung on a tree to die, powerfully grounded their faith that God was with them, even in the suffering of the lynching era.”
Jesus and the Disinherited (1949) by Howard Thurman. “In this classic theological treatise, the acclaimed theologian and religious leader Howard Thurman (1900-1981) demonstrates how the gospel may be read as a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. Jesus is a partner in the pain of the oppressed and the example of His life offers a solution to ending the descent into moral nihilism. Hatred does not empower--it decays. Only through self-love and love of one another can God's justice prevail.”
Context about racism
PODCAST:
The 1619 Project (2019 Podcast from the New York Times). “An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.” This award-winning podcast has received widespread critical acclaim. Note: While supporting the overall aim of the 1619 Project and agreeing that anti-black racism still shapes American society, some historians, both Black and White, have disagreed with the way the trajectory of improvement in racism in American society is described, for example, the role of slavery in the American Revolution.
ARTICLE:
The Case for Reparations (2014 Article from the Atlantic). “Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debt, America will never be whole.”
FILMS:
Selma (2015), directed by Ava DuVernay. This moving film explores how the Voting Rights Act of 1965 came into being under the the pressure of a strong peaceful movement organized by young black people from Selma, Alabama and ultimately led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Rated PG 13.
Malcolm X (1992), directed by Spike Lee. This is a compelling biographical drama film about the African American activist Malcolm X, starring Denzel Washington. The screenplay, “co-credited to Lee and Arnold Perl, is based largely on Alex Haley's 1965 book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Haley collaborated with Malcolm X on the book beginning in 1963 and completed it after Malcolm X's death… The film dramatizes key events in Malcolm X's life: his criminal career, his incarceration, his conversion to Islam, his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his later falling out with the organization, his marriage to Betty X, his pilgrimage to Mecca and reevaluation of his views concerning whites, and his assassination on February 21, 1965. Defining childhood incidents, including his father's death, his mother's mental illness, and his experiences with racism, are dramatized in flashbacks.”
BOOKS:
The Sword and The Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. (2020), by Peniel E. Joseph, scholar, teacher, and leading public voice on race issues who holds a joint professorship appointment at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the History Department in the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. In this dual biography, Joseph upends traditional preconceptions of these two remarkable 20th century Black leaders and “reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives. This is a strikingly revisionist biography, not only of Malcolm and Martin, but also of the movement and era they came to define.”
How To Be An Anti-Racist (2019), by Ibram X. Kendi. Beginning July 1, 2020, Kendi will become Professor of History and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. “Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to anti racism.” Definitions: “RACIST: One who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea. ANTIRACIST: One who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea.”
How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide (2018), by Crystal Marie Fleming, sociologist, professor, and researcher. Using raw social critique, humorous personal anecdotes and interdisciplinary scholarship on system racism, Fleming highlights the misconceptions that have “corrupted the way race is presented in the classroom, pop culture, media, and politics….” The author provides a roadmap for using this knowledge to enact social change.
The 1619 Project (2019 Podcast from the New York Times). “An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.” This award-winning podcast has received widespread critical acclaim. Note: While supporting the overall aim of the 1619 Project and agreeing that anti-black racism still shapes American society, some historians, both Black and White, have disagreed with the way the trajectory of improvement in racism in American society is described, for example, the role of slavery in the American Revolution.
ARTICLE:
The Case for Reparations (2014 Article from the Atlantic). “Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debt, America will never be whole.”
FILMS:
Selma (2015), directed by Ava DuVernay. This moving film explores how the Voting Rights Act of 1965 came into being under the the pressure of a strong peaceful movement organized by young black people from Selma, Alabama and ultimately led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Rated PG 13.
Malcolm X (1992), directed by Spike Lee. This is a compelling biographical drama film about the African American activist Malcolm X, starring Denzel Washington. The screenplay, “co-credited to Lee and Arnold Perl, is based largely on Alex Haley's 1965 book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Haley collaborated with Malcolm X on the book beginning in 1963 and completed it after Malcolm X's death… The film dramatizes key events in Malcolm X's life: his criminal career, his incarceration, his conversion to Islam, his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his later falling out with the organization, his marriage to Betty X, his pilgrimage to Mecca and reevaluation of his views concerning whites, and his assassination on February 21, 1965. Defining childhood incidents, including his father's death, his mother's mental illness, and his experiences with racism, are dramatized in flashbacks.”
BOOKS:
The Sword and The Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. (2020), by Peniel E. Joseph, scholar, teacher, and leading public voice on race issues who holds a joint professorship appointment at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the History Department in the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. In this dual biography, Joseph upends traditional preconceptions of these two remarkable 20th century Black leaders and “reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives. This is a strikingly revisionist biography, not only of Malcolm and Martin, but also of the movement and era they came to define.”
How To Be An Anti-Racist (2019), by Ibram X. Kendi. Beginning July 1, 2020, Kendi will become Professor of History and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. “Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to anti racism.” Definitions: “RACIST: One who is supporting a racist policy through their actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea. ANTIRACIST: One who is supporting an antiracist policy through their actions or expressing an antiracist idea.”
How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide (2018), by Crystal Marie Fleming, sociologist, professor, and researcher. Using raw social critique, humorous personal anecdotes and interdisciplinary scholarship on system racism, Fleming highlights the misconceptions that have “corrupted the way race is presented in the classroom, pop culture, media, and politics….” The author provides a roadmap for using this knowledge to enact social change.
INCARCERATION/CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTE
FILM:
13th (2016), a documentary by director Ana DuVernay. 13th explores the “intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the US; it is titled after the thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the U.S. and ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for conviction of a crime.” Rated TV- MA.
AVAILABLE BOTH AS A BOOK AND FILM:
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014), by Bryan Stevenson, public interest lawyer and founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. “A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice… Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice. The film is rated PG-13.
BOOKS:
I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street (2017), by Matt Taibbi, author, journalist and podcaster. The book examines the particulars of one case, the killing of Eric Garner by New York City police, to confront us with the human cost of our broken approach to dispensing criminal justice.
They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement (2016), by Wesley Lowery, Washington Post writer. “By posing the question, ‘What does the loss of any one life mean to the rest of the nation?’ Lowery examines the cumulative effect of decades of really biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and too few jobs.” He also demonstrates that civil unrest is just one tool of resistance in a broader struggle for justice.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010), by Michelle Alexander, civil rights litigator, and legal scholar. “Alexander argues vigorously that we have not ended racial caste in America, we have merely redesigned it.” In the decade since it was published, the book has been cited in judicial decisions and spawned a generation of activists or criminal justice reform.
13th (2016), a documentary by director Ana DuVernay. 13th explores the “intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the US; it is titled after the thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the U.S. and ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for conviction of a crime.” Rated TV- MA.
AVAILABLE BOTH AS A BOOK AND FILM:
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (2014), by Bryan Stevenson, public interest lawyer and founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. “A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice… Just Mercy is at once an unforgettable account of an idealistic, gifted young lawyer’s coming of age, a moving window into the lives of those he has defended, and an inspiring argument for compassion in the pursuit of true justice. The film is rated PG-13.
BOOKS:
I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street (2017), by Matt Taibbi, author, journalist and podcaster. The book examines the particulars of one case, the killing of Eric Garner by New York City police, to confront us with the human cost of our broken approach to dispensing criminal justice.
They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement (2016), by Wesley Lowery, Washington Post writer. “By posing the question, ‘What does the loss of any one life mean to the rest of the nation?’ Lowery examines the cumulative effect of decades of really biased policing in segregated neighborhoods with failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and too few jobs.” He also demonstrates that civil unrest is just one tool of resistance in a broader struggle for justice.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010), by Michelle Alexander, civil rights litigator, and legal scholar. “Alexander argues vigorously that we have not ended racial caste in America, we have merely redesigned it.” In the decade since it was published, the book has been cited in judicial decisions and spawned a generation of activists or criminal justice reform.
BLACK CULTURE/EXPERIENCE
VIDEO:
Modern Day Lynching, Target Practice, short film (under 7 minutes), written and directed by Yasmin Neal. A powerful and heartbreaking YouTube video on the fear Black people live with in America, made even more haunting with the song Strange Fruit, sung by Nina Simone, as soundtrack.
FILM:
I Am Not Your Negro (2016), directed by Raoul Peck, based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript Remember This House. Narrated by actor Samuel L. Jackson, the film explores the history of racism in the United States through Baldwin's reminiscences of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as his personal observations of American history.
BOOKS/NON-FICTION:
Thick: And Other Essays (2019), by Tressie McMillan Cottom, award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed. In eight treatises on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom is unapologetically “thick”: deemed “thick where I should have been thin, more where I should have been less,” McMillan Cottom refuses to shy away from blending the personal with the political, from bringing her full self and voice to the fore of her analytical work. Thick “transforms narrative moments into analyses of whiteness, black misogyny, and status-signaling as means of survival for black women” (Los Angeles Review of Books)
Breathe: A Letter to My Sons (2019), by Imani Perry. Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where she also teaches in the Programs in Law and Public Affairs, and Gender and Sexuality Studies. The book “offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience.”
Between the World and Me (2015), by Ta-Nehisi Coates, author and journalist. “Coates attempts to answer the question, ‘What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?’” in a letter to his son. The book looks at the past and present and offers a vision for a new way forward.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), by Maya Angelou, poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. Angelou’s most widely read book, the first in a 7-book series, begins when she is three years old, and she and her brother Bailey were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas; and ends when she becomes a mother at sixteen. Raw, personal, and honest, the topics explored include: personal dignity, family relationships, rape, racism, sexism, and literacy as a refuge and way to cope with her bewildering world.
The Fire Next Time (1963), by James Baldwin, novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. The book consists of two essays written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation proclamation. They are a powerful and disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice. It was described as, “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament and chronicle”. It is perhaps even more searing considering how timely it feels nearly 60 years later.
BOOKS/FICTION:
The Water Dancer (2019), by Ta-Nehise Coates, author and journalist. “Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.
So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he is enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.”
Homegoing (2017), by Yaa Gyasi, award-winning author. “Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery. Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Yaa Gyasi’s extraordinary novel illuminates’ slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed—and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.”
Salvage The Bones (2012), by Jesmyn Ward, award-winning author. Ward “delivers a gritty but tender novel about family and poverty in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. As the twelve days that make up the novel's framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family--motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce--pulls itself up to face another day. A big-hearted novel about familial love and community against all odds, and a wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, Salvage the Bones is muscled with poetry, revelatory, and real.”
Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison, Nobel prize winning novelist, essayist, book editor and college professor. Sethe, the protagonist of the story, “was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement.”
Invisible Man (1952), by Ralph Ellison, novelist, literary critic and scholar. “The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.” The unnamed protagonist wrestles with the gift of opportunity served alongside indignity.
Modern Day Lynching, Target Practice, short film (under 7 minutes), written and directed by Yasmin Neal. A powerful and heartbreaking YouTube video on the fear Black people live with in America, made even more haunting with the song Strange Fruit, sung by Nina Simone, as soundtrack.
FILM:
I Am Not Your Negro (2016), directed by Raoul Peck, based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript Remember This House. Narrated by actor Samuel L. Jackson, the film explores the history of racism in the United States through Baldwin's reminiscences of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as his personal observations of American history.
BOOKS/NON-FICTION:
Thick: And Other Essays (2019), by Tressie McMillan Cottom, award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed. In eight treatises on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom is unapologetically “thick”: deemed “thick where I should have been thin, more where I should have been less,” McMillan Cottom refuses to shy away from blending the personal with the political, from bringing her full self and voice to the fore of her analytical work. Thick “transforms narrative moments into analyses of whiteness, black misogyny, and status-signaling as means of survival for black women” (Los Angeles Review of Books)
Breathe: A Letter to My Sons (2019), by Imani Perry. Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where she also teaches in the Programs in Law and Public Affairs, and Gender and Sexuality Studies. The book “offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience.”
Between the World and Me (2015), by Ta-Nehisi Coates, author and journalist. “Coates attempts to answer the question, ‘What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?’” in a letter to his son. The book looks at the past and present and offers a vision for a new way forward.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), by Maya Angelou, poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. Angelou’s most widely read book, the first in a 7-book series, begins when she is three years old, and she and her brother Bailey were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas; and ends when she becomes a mother at sixteen. Raw, personal, and honest, the topics explored include: personal dignity, family relationships, rape, racism, sexism, and literacy as a refuge and way to cope with her bewildering world.
The Fire Next Time (1963), by James Baldwin, novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. The book consists of two essays written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation proclamation. They are a powerful and disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice. It was described as, “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament and chronicle”. It is perhaps even more searing considering how timely it feels nearly 60 years later.
BOOKS/FICTION:
The Water Dancer (2019), by Ta-Nehise Coates, author and journalist. “Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.
So begins an unexpected journey that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the Deep South to dangerously idealistic movements in the North. Even as he is enlisted in the underground war between slavers and the enslaved, Hiram’s resolve to rescue the family he left behind endures.”
Homegoing (2017), by Yaa Gyasi, award-winning author. “Ghana, eighteenth century: two half sisters are born into different villages, each unaware of the other. One will marry an Englishman and lead a life of comfort in the palatial rooms of the Cape Coast Castle. The other will be captured in a raid on her village, imprisoned in the very same castle, and sold into slavery. Homegoing follows the parallel paths of these sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem. Yaa Gyasi’s extraordinary novel illuminates’ slavery’s troubled legacy both for those who were taken and those who stayed—and shows how the memory of captivity has been inscribed on the soul of our nation.”
Salvage The Bones (2012), by Jesmyn Ward, award-winning author. Ward “delivers a gritty but tender novel about family and poverty in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. As the twelve days that make up the novel's framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family--motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce--pulls itself up to face another day. A big-hearted novel about familial love and community against all odds, and a wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, Salvage the Bones is muscled with poetry, revelatory, and real.”
Beloved (1987), by Toni Morrison, Nobel prize winning novelist, essayist, book editor and college professor. Sethe, the protagonist of the story, “was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement.”
Invisible Man (1952), by Ralph Ellison, novelist, literary critic and scholar. “The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.” The unnamed protagonist wrestles with the gift of opportunity served alongside indignity.
TALKING ABOUT RACISM
ARTICLE:
"3 White Privilege Blind Spots in Boston That Are Keeping Us Racist," An article written by siblings Julie Devaney Hogan and Erik Devaney specifically aimed at white privilege blind spots in Boston.
SHORT VIDEO:
White Women Who Truly Want to Help: Here’s How (2020), by Iverlei Brookes. Iverlei Brooks speaks directly to white women (though it could apply to white men as well) encouraging them to speak up in their circles of influence.
BOOKS:
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (2018), by Robin DiAngelo, academic, lecturer, author, and consultant and trainer on issues of racial and social justice. The book “explores the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality”..
Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade (2012), by Thomas Norman DeWolf and Sharon Morgan. The authors demonstrate that before we can overcome racism we must first acknowledge and understand the damage inherited from the past – which inevitably involves confronting painful truths. That difficult examination offers a powerful model for healing individuals and communities.
So You Want to Talk About Race (2019), by Ijeoma Oluo, Seattle-based writer, speaker, and Internet Yeller. “Oluo give us – both white people and people of color – that language to engage in clear, constructive, and confident dialogue with each other about how to deal with racial prejudices and biases.” “Generous and empathetic, yet usefully blunt…”
"3 White Privilege Blind Spots in Boston That Are Keeping Us Racist," An article written by siblings Julie Devaney Hogan and Erik Devaney specifically aimed at white privilege blind spots in Boston.
SHORT VIDEO:
White Women Who Truly Want to Help: Here’s How (2020), by Iverlei Brookes. Iverlei Brooks speaks directly to white women (though it could apply to white men as well) encouraging them to speak up in their circles of influence.
BOOKS:
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (2018), by Robin DiAngelo, academic, lecturer, author, and consultant and trainer on issues of racial and social justice. The book “explores the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality”..
Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade (2012), by Thomas Norman DeWolf and Sharon Morgan. The authors demonstrate that before we can overcome racism we must first acknowledge and understand the damage inherited from the past – which inevitably involves confronting painful truths. That difficult examination offers a powerful model for healing individuals and communities.
So You Want to Talk About Race (2019), by Ijeoma Oluo, Seattle-based writer, speaker, and Internet Yeller. “Oluo give us – both white people and people of color – that language to engage in clear, constructive, and confident dialogue with each other about how to deal with racial prejudices and biases.” “Generous and empathetic, yet usefully blunt…”
FOR PARENTS
bOOKS
Raising White Kids, by Jennifer Harvey with a foreword by Tim Wise.
Raising White Kids is for families, churches, educators, and communities who want to equip their children to be active and able participants in a society that is becoming one of the most racially diverse in the world while remaining full of racial tensions
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, by Beverly Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism.
Tatum argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully revised edition is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of race in America.
White Kids, by Margaret Hagerman.
American kids are living in a world of ongoing public debates about race, daily displays of racial injustice, and for some, an increased awareness surrounding diversity and inclusion. In this heated context, sociologist Margaret A. Hagerman zeroes in on affluent, white kids to observe how they make sense of privilege, unequal educational opportunities, and police violence. In fascinating detail, Hagerman considers the role that they and their families play in the reproduction of racism and racial inequality in America.
Raising White Kids is for families, churches, educators, and communities who want to equip their children to be active and able participants in a society that is becoming one of the most racially diverse in the world while remaining full of racial tensions
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, by Beverly Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism.
Tatum argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides. These topics have only become more urgent as the national conversation about race is increasingly acrimonious. This fully revised edition is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the dynamics of race in America.
White Kids, by Margaret Hagerman.
American kids are living in a world of ongoing public debates about race, daily displays of racial injustice, and for some, an increased awareness surrounding diversity and inclusion. In this heated context, sociologist Margaret A. Hagerman zeroes in on affluent, white kids to observe how they make sense of privilege, unequal educational opportunities, and police violence. In fascinating detail, Hagerman considers the role that they and their families play in the reproduction of racism and racial inequality in America.
FOR KIDS
MOVIE
The Watsons Go to Birmingham, by Christopher Paul Curtis
Enter the world of ten-year-old Kenny and his family, the Weird Watsons of Flint, Michigan. There's Momma, Dad, little sister Joetta, and brother Byron, who is thirteen and an "official juvenile delinquent." When Byron gets to be too much trouble, they head to Birmingham to visit Grandma, the one person who can shape him up. And they will be in Birmingham during one of the darkest moments in America's history.
Enter the world of ten-year-old Kenny and his family, the Weird Watsons of Flint, Michigan. There's Momma, Dad, little sister Joetta, and brother Byron, who is thirteen and an "official juvenile delinquent." When Byron gets to be too much trouble, they head to Birmingham to visit Grandma, the one person who can shape him up. And they will be in Birmingham during one of the darkest moments in America's history.
PICTURE BOOKS
All Different Now: Juneteenth: The First Day of Freedom, by Angela Johnson
Through the eyes of one little girl, All Different Now tells the story of the first Juneteenth, the day freedom finally came to the last of the slaves in the South. Since then, the observance of June 19 as African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond. This stunning picture book includes notes from the author and illustrator, a timeline of important dates, and a glossary of relevant terms.
Amazing Grace, by Mary Hoffman
Grace loves stories, whether they are from books, movies, or the kind her grandmother tells. So when she gets a chance to play a part in Peter Pan, she knows exactly who she wants to be, but her classmates tell her that she can’t play the part of Peter because not only was she a girl but she was black!
A Kids Book About Racism, by Jelani Memory
Yes, this really is a kid’s book about racism. Inside, you will find a clear description of what racism is, how it makes people feel when they experience it, and how to spot it when it happens. This is one conversation that is never too early to start, and this book was written to be an introduction for kids on the topic.
All the Colors of the Earth, by Sheila Hamanaka.
Celebrate the colors of children and the colors of love--not black or white or yellow or red, but roaring brown, whispering gold, tinkling pink, and more.
Chocolate Me! by Taye Diggs
Teased for looking different than the other kids—his skin is darker, his hair curlier—he tells his mother he wishes he could be more like everyone else. And she helps him to see how beautiful he really, truly is.
The Colors of Us, by Karen Katz
A positive and affirming look at skin color, from an artist’s perspective. Seven-year-old Lena wants to use brown paint for her skin in a picture of herself. But when she and her mother walk through the neighborhood, Lena learns that brown comes in many different shades.
Juneteenth for Mazie, by Floyd Cooper
Mazie is ready to celebrate liberty. She is ready to celebrate freedom. She is ready to celebrate a great day in American history. The day her ancestors were no longer slaves. Mazie remembers the struggles and the triumph, as she gets ready to celebrate Juneteenth.
Mommy, Am I Brown? by Deandra Abuto.
Eli and his mother are having a normal day in the park, but his curiosity is sparked when they grab his favorite treat. As they experience the day, he soon realizes that he is connected to the world in more ways than he realized.
Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children, by Sandra Pinkney and Myles Pinkney.
Full color photographs illustrate poetic, vivid text that describes a range of skin and eye colors and hair textures. Conveys a strong sense of pride.
The Skin You Live In, by Michael Tyler
Vivid illustrations and a lively story deliver an important message of social acceptance to young readers. Friendship, acceptance, self-esteem, and diversity are promoted in simple and straightforward prose. Great descriptions of skin colors.
The Youngest Marcher, by Cynthia Levinson.
In one of the more shocking and little-known stories of the civil rights movement: In 1963, the City of Birmingham jailed hundreds of kids for joining the Children’s March. Among them was 9-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks, taken from her family to spend a week behind bars, eating ‘oily grits’ and sleeping on a bare mattress. Levinson and Newton keep her story bright and snappy, emphasizing the girl’s eagerness to make a difference and her proud place in her community.”
Through the eyes of one little girl, All Different Now tells the story of the first Juneteenth, the day freedom finally came to the last of the slaves in the South. Since then, the observance of June 19 as African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond. This stunning picture book includes notes from the author and illustrator, a timeline of important dates, and a glossary of relevant terms.
Amazing Grace, by Mary Hoffman
Grace loves stories, whether they are from books, movies, or the kind her grandmother tells. So when she gets a chance to play a part in Peter Pan, she knows exactly who she wants to be, but her classmates tell her that she can’t play the part of Peter because not only was she a girl but she was black!
A Kids Book About Racism, by Jelani Memory
Yes, this really is a kid’s book about racism. Inside, you will find a clear description of what racism is, how it makes people feel when they experience it, and how to spot it when it happens. This is one conversation that is never too early to start, and this book was written to be an introduction for kids on the topic.
All the Colors of the Earth, by Sheila Hamanaka.
Celebrate the colors of children and the colors of love--not black or white or yellow or red, but roaring brown, whispering gold, tinkling pink, and more.
Chocolate Me! by Taye Diggs
Teased for looking different than the other kids—his skin is darker, his hair curlier—he tells his mother he wishes he could be more like everyone else. And she helps him to see how beautiful he really, truly is.
The Colors of Us, by Karen Katz
A positive and affirming look at skin color, from an artist’s perspective. Seven-year-old Lena wants to use brown paint for her skin in a picture of herself. But when she and her mother walk through the neighborhood, Lena learns that brown comes in many different shades.
Juneteenth for Mazie, by Floyd Cooper
Mazie is ready to celebrate liberty. She is ready to celebrate freedom. She is ready to celebrate a great day in American history. The day her ancestors were no longer slaves. Mazie remembers the struggles and the triumph, as she gets ready to celebrate Juneteenth.
Mommy, Am I Brown? by Deandra Abuto.
Eli and his mother are having a normal day in the park, but his curiosity is sparked when they grab his favorite treat. As they experience the day, he soon realizes that he is connected to the world in more ways than he realized.
Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children, by Sandra Pinkney and Myles Pinkney.
Full color photographs illustrate poetic, vivid text that describes a range of skin and eye colors and hair textures. Conveys a strong sense of pride.
The Skin You Live In, by Michael Tyler
Vivid illustrations and a lively story deliver an important message of social acceptance to young readers. Friendship, acceptance, self-esteem, and diversity are promoted in simple and straightforward prose. Great descriptions of skin colors.
The Youngest Marcher, by Cynthia Levinson.
In one of the more shocking and little-known stories of the civil rights movement: In 1963, the City of Birmingham jailed hundreds of kids for joining the Children’s March. Among them was 9-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks, taken from her family to spend a week behind bars, eating ‘oily grits’ and sleeping on a bare mattress. Levinson and Newton keep her story bright and snappy, emphasizing the girl’s eagerness to make a difference and her proud place in her community.”
AGES 9 - 12
Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness, by Anastasia Higginbotham
A Book About Whiteness is a picture book about racism and racial justice, inviting white children and parents to become curious about racism, accept that it is real, and cultivate justice.
Resist: 35 Profiles of Ordinary People Who Rose Up Against Tyranny and Injustice, by Veronica Chambers
Before they were activists, they were just like you and me. From Frederick Douglass to Malala Yousafzai, Joan of Arc to John Lewis, Susan B. Anthony to Janet Mock--these remarkable figures show us what it means to take a stand and say no to injustice, even when it would be far easier to stay quiet.
Resist profiles men and women who resisted tyranny, fought the odds, and stood up to bullies that threatened to harm their communities. Along with their portraits and most memorable quotes, their stories will inspire you to speak out and rise up.
A Book About Whiteness is a picture book about racism and racial justice, inviting white children and parents to become curious about racism, accept that it is real, and cultivate justice.
Resist: 35 Profiles of Ordinary People Who Rose Up Against Tyranny and Injustice, by Veronica Chambers
Before they were activists, they were just like you and me. From Frederick Douglass to Malala Yousafzai, Joan of Arc to John Lewis, Susan B. Anthony to Janet Mock--these remarkable figures show us what it means to take a stand and say no to injustice, even when it would be far easier to stay quiet.
Resist profiles men and women who resisted tyranny, fought the odds, and stood up to bullies that threatened to harm their communities. Along with their portraits and most memorable quotes, their stories will inspire you to speak out and rise up.
AGES 12+
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
In this New York Times bestselling novel, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.
In this New York Times bestselling novel, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension.
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.
FOR TEENS
films and videos
13th by Ava DuVernay
Raising the Ethnic IQ of a Generation by Albert Tate, Reggie Joiner, and Virginia Ward
Upward: The Sin of Silence and God’s Heart for Justice by Danielle Coke
Reachable Reconciliation by Fred Oduyoye
Enough Is Enough by Latasha Morrison
Raising the Ethnic IQ of a Generation by Albert Tate, Reggie Joiner, and Virginia Ward
Upward: The Sin of Silence and God’s Heart for Justice by Danielle Coke
Reachable Reconciliation by Fred Oduyoye
Enough Is Enough by Latasha Morrison
books
The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Black and White: Disrupting Racism One Friendship at a Time by John Hambrick and Teesha Hadra
Ready to Rise: Own Your Voice, Gather Your Community, Step Into Your Influence by Jo Saxton
Rediscipling The White Church by David W. Swanson
Be the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation by Latasha Morrison
When Life Gives You Lemons: 3 Must Ask Questions for Navigating Seasons of Adversity by Gerald Fadayomi
How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Black and White: Disrupting Racism One Friendship at a Time by John Hambrick and Teesha Hadra
Ready to Rise: Own Your Voice, Gather Your Community, Step Into Your Influence by Jo Saxton
Rediscipling The White Church by David W. Swanson
Be the Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation by Latasha Morrison
When Life Gives You Lemons: 3 Must Ask Questions for Navigating Seasons of Adversity by Gerald Fadayomi
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