Educational Opportunities
Our Racial History
Stamped from the Beginning – Ibram X Kendi
Why We Can’t Wait – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Walking Against the Wind – John Lewis
Racial Reconciliation for Beginners
The Color of Compromise – Jemar Tisby
Be the Bridge – Latasha Morrison
How to be an Anti-Racist – Ibram X Kendi
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness – Austin Channing Brown
Jesus and the Disinherited – Howard Thurman
Why Are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria – Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum
I’m Black, I’m Christian, I’m Methodist – ed. by Rudy Rasmus
But I Don’t See You as Asian: Curating Conversations about Race – Bruce Reyes-Chow
Policy History
The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein
Just Mercy – Bryan Stevenson
The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander
Mass Incarceration
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness – Michelle Alexander
Hard Time: Understanding and Reforming the Prison – Robert Johnson
Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time – James Kilgore
Slouching Toward Tyranny: Mass Incarceration, Death Sentences and Racism – Rev. Joseph B. Ingle
The Inferno: A Southern Morality Tale – Rev. Joseph B. Ingle
Last Rights: Thirteen Fatal Encounters with the State’s Justice – Rev. Joseph B. Ingle
The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions – Sister Helen Prejean
Dead Man Walking – Sister Helen Prejean
Beyond Prisons: A New Interfaith Paradigm for Our Failed Prison System – Laura Magnani and Harmon L. Wray
First-Person Accounts
Locked Up: Letters and Papers of a Prisoner of Conscience – Don Beisswenger
Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett – Jennifer Gonnerman
Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women – Susan Burton and Cari Lynn
Facing the U.S. Prison Problem 2.3 Million Strong: An Ex-Con’s View of the Mistakes and the Solutions – Shawn R. Griffith
Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison – Shaka Senghor
So I Can Live: Visons of Life from Death Row – W. S. Lyon, editor
Secrets from a Prison Cell: A Convict’s Eyewitness Accounts of the Dehumanizing Drama of Life Behind Bars – Tony Vick with Michael T. McRay
I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in Letters – Bayard Rustin
Deep Studies
The Cross and the Lynching Tree – James Cone
A Black Theology of Liberation – James Cone
Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength – Dr. Chanequa Walker- Barnes
I Bring the Voices of My People – Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes
Prophetic Lament – Dr. Soong-Chan Rah
Decolonizing Christianity: Becoming Badass Believers – Miguel De La Torre
Films (Documentaries and Narrative Film)
Rustin (premieres November 17, 2023 on Netflix)
Anti-Racism Resources for Youth Non-Fiction
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-Winning Stamped from the Beginning – Jason Reynolds & Ibram X Kendi
Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States – edited by Joe Macaré, Maya Schenwar, and Alana Yu-lan Price
Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults): A True Story of the Fight for Justice – Brian Stevenson
How It Went Down – Kekla Magoon
Dear Martin – Nic Stone (9th grade up)
The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas (8th grade up)
I Am Alfonso Jones – Tony Medina (9th grade up, graphic novel)
Films
Rustin (premieres November 17, 2023 on Netflix)
Additional Resources
Smithsonian “Talking About Race” Online Portal
Teen Vogue’s articles on racism and activism
Race Talk: Engaging Young People in Conversations about Race and Racism