Resources on Racism: Learning & Doing v2.1 26 October 2020 Compiled by Fern Blood. Please send suggestions, corrections or broken link info to [email protected] Bold entries: good places to start Table of Contents Part 1: Learning Slavery 2 Historical Events & Figures 3 Commentary on Current Events 5 Reparations 5 Housing 7 Health Care 7 New England Specific 8 Materials for Parents & Kids 9 Policing, Criminal In/Justice & Incarceration 10 Jewish Themes and Perspectives 10 List of Books 12 List of Films 13 A Few Data Points 14 Other Collections of Materials 15 Part 2: Doing Materials for Teachers and Others 16 Action Steps 16 Organizations to Donate to 19 Bail Assistance 19 Black- and Minority-Owned Businesses & Banks 19 Voting Efforts 20 Legislative Efforts 20 1 Part 1: Learning Slavery Middle Passage The History of the Trade of Enslaved People Across the Atlantic, Thoughtco.com https://docs.google.com/document/d/19kKptyEYcPAWluGOzJlG9LR55YBoDa1Xv60cpiOHlGI/edit?usp=shar ing Middle Passage, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Slavery & Remembrance, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ISaZmCUjbav0Kihzx6ru1STG3eXfpVNZooQyNBXqkaY/edit?usp=shar ing The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (an excerpt collected in Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African American History Told by Those Who Lived It, Edited by Herb Boyd, Anchor Books, 2000) “Equiano[‘s]…vivid remembrance of village life in his native Guinea…gives the reader an excellent idea of the African life so many were forced to leave behind….[T]he story included here tells of the horrors he witnessed aboard the slave ship that carried him from his homeland.” https://docs.google.com/document/d/14uGWiOHxlBVzvhuaouVLLhUZGxQfR2IYeOKKYg3wvLU/edit?usp= sharing The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes: 315 years. 20,528 voyages. Millions of lives. By Andrew Kahn and Jamelle Bouie, Slate.com http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_history_of_american_slavery/2015/06/animated_interactive_of_the_histo ry_of_the_atlantic_slave_trade.html 1619 Project The 1619 Project is an … initiative from The New York Times Magazine that began in August 2019, the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html The first article in the series is by Nikole Hannah-Jones, published 14 August 2019: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html An animated short film by Bryan Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative (www.eji.org ) describing the history of slavery and racial injustice in America: https://youtu.be/r4e_djVSag4 The History of American Slavery, podcast with Jamelle Bouie and Rebecca Onion. With the help of acclaimed historians and writers, Rebecca Onion and Jamelle Bouie explore the history of American slavery and examine how the institution came to shape our country’s politics, economy, and culture. https://slate.com/podcasts/history-of-american-slavery Subscription required. 2 Historical Events & Figures Belinda Sutton and Her Petitions, 1782-1793 “Of all the residents on the Royall estate (Medford, Mass.) in the 18th century, free or enslaved, perhaps the best-known today is Belinda Sutton, an African-born woman who was enslaved by the Royalls.” https://royallhouse.org/slavery/belinda-sutton-and-her-petitions/ Excerpt, Belinda, from Unchained Voices, (collected in Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African American History Told by Those Who Lived It, Edited by Herb Boyd, Anchor Books, 2000) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Xw6bKNZTnLBokfBV5WwkE_Dj3gC3mIwoKwehlL0fN- 0/edit?usp=sharing Nat Turner (1800-1831) The birthplace of American slavery debated abolishing it after Nat Turner’s bloody revolt, 1 June 2019, Washington Post https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PuuQ- OS879Mo5vaYNnHVA8GdJQlGfZwpJq2isChmuVU/edit?usp=sharing Amistad: How it Began, National Park Service: In 1839 slave hunters captured large numbers of native Africans who were sent to Havana, Cuba to be sold into slavery. This is the story of what happened next. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UzCUQeUtTmow4Pwruo2p11KUH4Hba_8FMyyymuB4YGw/edit?usp= sharing John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry, Va 1859 Five black men raided Harpers Ferry with John Brown. They’ve been forgotten. Every October, on the anniversary of the raid that helped fuel the Civil War, much attention is focused on Brown, not on his African American soldiers. By Eugene L. Meyer, Washington Post, Oct. 13, 2019 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jtJy-dELtc0rtT-mOjsEMavcn9EWW9suv599Fj4_jBo/edit?usp=sharing The Last Slave Ship Survivor Gave an Interview in the 1930s. It Just Surfaced. 1860 “Zora Neale Hurston's searing book about the final survivor of the transatlantic slave trade, Cudjo Lewis, could not find a publisher for nearly 90 years.” History.com, Original: May 3, 2018, Updated: Mar 23, 2020 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UEk-fOBBqduTGNGzSLBNlBvi6PrYOOA9RkaeV- UhT4w/edit?usp=sharing Robert Smalls (1839-1919) From slave to decorated Civil War hero, https://www.nps.gov/people/robert-smalls.htm Juneteenth 1865 The History and Meaning of Juneteenth, The New York Times, The Daily podcast, 19 June 2020 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/podcasts/the-daily/juneteenth-emancipation-day-black-lives-matter.html An interview with Dr. Daina Ramey Berry, Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. 19 June 2020, New York Times The Daily podcast. Dr. Berry’s discussion of the history and significance of Juneteenth is enlightening and heartbreaking especially as she relates personal conversations she has had with her son. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/podcasts/the-daily/juneteenth-emancipation-day-black-lives-matter.html Reconstruction (1865-late 1870’s) The period after the Civil War, 1865 - 1877, was called the Reconstruction period. Abraham Lincoln started planning for the reconstruction of the South during the Civil War as Union soldiers occupied huge areas 3 of the South. In December 1863 he offered his plan for Reconstruction which required that the States new constitutions prohibit slavery. http://www.howard.edu/library/reference/guides/reconstructionera/ Reconstruction with Jamelle Bouie and Rebecca Onion. The era of Reconstruction that followed the Civil War was our best chance to build an American democracy grounded in racial equality. Its failure helps explain why race, “states’ rights,” and the legacy of the Confederacy remain central themes in our politics today. https://slate.com/podcasts/reconstruction Subscription required. Jim Crow Laws (late 1870’s to 1965) The Jim Crow Era began towards the end of Reconstruction and lasted until 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-jim-crow-45387 The Great Migration (1915-1960) The Great Migration was the mass movement of about five million southern blacks to the north and west between 1915 and 1960. During the initial wave the majority of migrants moved to major northern cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and New York. By World War II the migrants continued to move North but many of them headed west to Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/great-migration-1915-1960/ Rosewood, 1923, Florida, a massacre carried out in the small, predominantly black town of Rosewood. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/rosewood-massacre-1923/ Scottsboro Boys 1931 In March 1931, the Scottsboro Boys were a group of nine black teenagers, ages 13 to 19, accused of rape in Alabama. The blatant injustice during their trial lead to several legal reforms. Emory University’s Associate Professor of African American Studies, Carol Anderson, discusses what happened to these boys both during and after their trial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmsYLmqx3wg Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, PBS American Experience, aired 2 April 2001 https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/scottsboro/#transcript Emmett Till (1941-1955) “A 14-year old African-American boy, was murdered in August 1955 in a racist attack that shocked the nation and provided a catalyst for the emerging civil rights movement.” History.com. Story from Eyes on the Prize. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie5Jnt_QWVs 1960 youth protest in Jacksonville Ax Handle Saturday marked a brutal time in Florida’s Civil Rights Movement. https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2014/09/02/youth-protest-jacksonville-turned- violent/14950827/ Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) I Have a Dream speech, 28 August 1963, Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., transcript and audio https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm Nobel Peace Prize Biography 1964: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jU6_98uo6b1_ra67xSLhlmix2alW68VQZ3q00U2kjO8/edit?usp=sharing Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977), biography.com, 2014, 2020. Born into a Mississippi sharecropping family, Fannie Lou Hamer spent much of her early life in the cotton fields. She became involved with the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1962, through which she led voting drives and relief efforts. In 1964, she co-founded and ran for Congress as a member of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. 4 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jfxyk-YQkUEh1kc5YgX_cXgE-