Racial Justice information resources

Films

13th: a 2016 American documentary by director Ava DuVernay. The film explores the "intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the ;" ...

Magazine Articles

The Case for Reparations, Ta Nehisi Coates https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for- reparations/361631/

Racial Study Courses

African American History: From Emancipation to the Present, https://oyc.yale.edu/african-american-studies/afam-162

Books

The Beautiful Struggle, Ta Nehisi Coates a memoir about coming of age in West Baltimore and its effect on him.

Between the World and Me, Ta Nehisi Coates: 2015 nonfiction book published by Spiegel & Grau. It is written as a letter to the author's teenage son about the feelings, symbolism, and realities associated with being Black in the United States.

We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, Ta Nehisi Coates: a collection of essays originally from The Atlantic magazine between 2008 and 2016 over the course of the American Barack Obama administration. It includes the titles that launched his career: "The Case for Reparations" and "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration". Each of the essays is introduced with the author's reflections.[1]

WHITE FRAGILITY by Robin DiAngelo: Historical and cultural analyses on what causes defensive moves by white people and how this inhibits cross-racial dialogue.

THE NEW JIM CROW by Michelle Alexander: A professor on the “war on drugs” and its role in the disproportionate incarceration of black men.

SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE by Ijeoma Oluo: A look at the contemporary racial landscape of the United States.

JUST MERCY by Bryan Stevenson: A civil rights lawyer and MacArthur grant recipient’s memoir of his decades of work to free innocent people condemned to death.

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BORN A CRIME by Trevor Noah: A memoir about growing up biracial in apartheid South Africa by the host of “The Daily Show.”

THE COLOR OF LAW by Richard Rothstein: A case for how the American government abetted racial segregation in metropolitan areas across the country.

MY GRANDMOTHER’S HANDS: Racialized Trauma and the Mending of Our Bodies and Hearts, Resmaa Menakem https://onbeing.org/programs/resmaa-menakem-notice-the-rage-notice-the- silence/#transcript

Resmaa Menakem offers therapy and coaching in Minneapolis and teaches across the U.S. He’s worked with U.S. military contractors in Afghanistan as well as American communities and police forces. His latest book, My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, is part narrative, part workbook.

Race in Minnesota, Edited by Sun Yung Shin Essays that challenge, discomfort, disorient, galvanize, and inspire all of us to evolve now, for our shared future.

Read it free in latest statewide book club effort: Race in Minnesota

July 2020 Suggested Reading List from St. Catherine University Gretchen Hintz Wronka ’66 and Melissa Reuter Brechon ’77 are professional librarians. From their research they offer a selection of current books on race and racism:

Be the Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation, Latasha Morrison A leading advocate for racial reconciliation uses biblical principles to issue a clarion call for Christians to move toward relationship and deeper understanding to overcome racial division. 2020 Christianity Today Book Award. Waterbrook Press, 2019.

Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement, Ejeris Dixon, et al. “Transformative justice seeks to solve the problem of violence at the grassroots level, without relying on punishment, incarceration, or policing. Community-based approaches to preventing crime and repairing its damage have existed for centuries. However, in the putative atmosphere of contemporary criminal justice systems, they are often marginalized and operate under the radar. Beyond Survival puts these strategies front and center as real alternatives to today’s failed models of confinement and correction.” AK Press, 2020.

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Eloquent Rage: a Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, Brittney CooperIn her debut, Cooper, cofounder of the Crunk Feminist Collective, reflects on the role that racism and sexism have played in her life-and the lives of black women in the United States. “To be black is to grow up in a world where white feelings can become dangerous weapons.” Being a black woman, she adds, is to be both visible and invisible. (Library Journal) St. Martin’s Press, 2018.

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot, Mikki Kendall If feminism is defined as political, economic, and social equality of the sexes, then how does it account for a lack of that parity among women? Mainstream feminism is just that, normative, and tends to work for everyone save those who live on the margins. Blogger, speaker, and essayist Kendall is a Black woman who knows what it’s like to live outside the majority patterns of society in general and feminism in particular. (Booklist) Viking, 2020.

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America, This book is structured as a religious service divided into chapters of “Hymns of Praise,” ” Invocation,” “Benediction,” and Sermon. Here is what he calls “a plea, a cry, a sermon, from my heart to yours,” because what I need to say can only be said as a sermon, one in which he preaches that “we must return to the moral and spiritual foundations of our country and grapple with the consequences of our original sin.” (Kirkus Reviews) St. Martin’s Press, 2017.

Booklist from Phi Beta Kappa

Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes A moving portrait of African- American family life in 1930s Kansas, following young Sandy Rogers as he comes of age. Sandy’s mother, Annjee, works as a housekeeper for a rich white family, while his father, traverses the country in search of work.

The Deepest Well by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris A pioneering physician reveals how childhood stress leads to lifelong health problems and what we can do to break the cycle.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award A young girl in Harlem discovers slam poetry as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world. Debut novel of renowned slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo.

Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston In the 1930's, Zora Neale Hurston returned to her "native village" of Eatonville, Florida to record the oral histories, sermons and songs, dating back to the time of slavery, which she remembered hearing as a child. In her quest, she found herself and her history throughout

3 Racial Justice information resources these highly metaphorical folk-tales, "big old lies," and the lyrical language of song. Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler In a story of love and hate, two immortals chase each other across continents and centuries, binding their fates together — and changing the destiny of the human race.

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo Winner of the 2019 Booker PrizeGirl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.

Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson In this provocative and deeply personal call for change, Michael Eric 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.

Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of – Imani Perry Winner of the 2019 Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award A revealing portrait of one of the most gifted and charismatic, yet least understood, Black artists and intellectuals of the twentieth century. Listen to Phi Beta Kappa's Key Conversations podcast episode featuring Imani Perry.

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin In a 1950s Paris swarming with expatriates and characterized by dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to repress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he envisions for himself.

From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor surveys the historical and contemporary ravages of racism and persistence of structural inequality such as mass incarceration and Black unemployment. In this context, she argues that this new struggle against police violence holds the potential to reignite a broader push for Black liberatio.

Imperial Intimacies, A Tale of Two Islands by Hazel V. Carby A haunting, evocative history of British Empire, told through one woman’s family story.

Real Life by Brandon Taylor A novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, from an electric new voice.

Black Phi Beta Kappa Authors

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Five Days by Wes Moore (ΦBK, Johns Hopkins University) A kaleidescopic account of five days in the life of a city on the edge, told through seven characters on the frontlines of the uprising that overtook Baltimore and riveted the world.

Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat (ΦBK, Barnard College) Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Story Prize, and the Vilcek Prize in Literature Set in locales from Miami and Port-au-Prince to a small unnamed country in the Caribbean and beyond, Everything Inside is a collection of eight vividly imagined stories about community, family, and love. Listen to Phi Beta Kappa's Key Conversations podcast interview with Edwidge Danticat

Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma (ΦBK, Lewis and Clark College) Haben takes readers through a thrilling game of blind hide-and-seek in Louisiana, a treacherous climb up an iceberg in Alaska, and a magical moment with President Obama at The White House. Warm, funny, thoughtful, and uplifting, this captivating memoir is a testament to one woman's determination to find the keys to connection. This book was also featured in Phi Beta Kappa's 2019 Summer Reading List.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois (ΦBK, Fisk University Believing that one can know the “soul” of a race by knowing the souls of individuals, W. E. B. Du Bois combines history and stirring autobiography in a series of essays to reflect on the magnitude of American racism and to chart a path forward against oppression.

The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome by Alondra Nelson (ΦBK, University of California - San Diego) Arguing that DNA offers a new tool for enduring issues, Nelson shows that the social life of DNA is affecting and transforming twenty-first-century racial politics.

Sonatta Mulattica by Rita Dove (ΦBK, Miami University) The son of a white woman and an “African Prince,” George Polgreen Bridgetower (1780–1860) travels to Vienna to meet “bad-boy” genius Ludwig van Beethoven. The great composer’s subsequent sonata is originally dedicated to the young mulatto, but George, exuberant with acclaim, offends Beethoven over a woman. From this crucial encounter evolves a grandiose yet melancholy poetic tale.

Here I Stand by Paul Robeson (ΦBK, Rutgers University) "This amazing man, this great intellect, this magnificient genius with his overwhelming love of humanity is a devastating challenge to a society built on hypocrisy, greed and profit-seeking at the expense of common humanity." - The New York Times.

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To Build a Better World by Philip D. Zelikow & Condoleeza Rice (ΦBK, University of Denver) A deeply researched international history and analysis of how a divided world ended and our present world was fashioned, as the world drifts toward another great time of choosing.

The New Negro by Alain Locke (ΦBK, ) With stunning works by seminal black voices such as Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, and W.E.B. DuBois, Locke constructs a vivid look at the new negro, the changing African American finding his place in the ever shifting sociocultural landscape that was 1920s America.

Topdog/Underdog by Suzan Lori-Parks (ΦBK, Mount Holyoke College) Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity, this play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment.

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis (ΦBK, Brandeis University) In Are Prisons Obsolete?, Davis seeks to illustrate that the time for the prison is approaching an end. She argues forthrightly for "decarceration", and argues for the transformation of the society as a whole.

Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington (ΦBK, Harvard University) Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time Up From Slavery is an autobiography of Booker T. Washington's life and work, which has been the source of inspiration for all Americans. Washington reveals his inner most thoughts as he transitions from ex-slave to teacher and founder of one of the most important schools for African Americans in the south, The Tuskegee Industrial Institute.

Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code by Ruha Benjamin (ΦBK, Spelman College) From everyday apps to complex algorithms, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies can reinforce White supremacy and deepen social inequity.

Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet by Ta-Nehisi Coates (ΦBK, Oregon State University) MacArthur Genius and National Book Award-winning writer T-Nehisi Coates takes the helm of Black Panther, confronting T'Challa with a dramatic upheaval in Wakanda that will make leading the African nation tougher than ever before.

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Ordinary Light by Tracy K. Smith (ΦBK, ) From new U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith, a deeply moving memoir that explores coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter. This book was also featured in Phi Beta Kappa's 2017 Summer Reading List.

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