Bibliography
Nonfiction books for Adults
Addressing Whiteness
- A Sin by Any Other Name: Reckoning with Racism and the Heritage of Racism in the South by Robert W. Lee.
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo.
- White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson, PhD
- White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
Commentary
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery edited by Rochelle Riley, foreword by Nikole Hannah-Jones
General history
- American Slavery, American Freedom by Edmund S. Morgan
- Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
- Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America by Tanner Colby
- The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
- Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
- The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Graphic novels
- March (Books 1-3) by John Lewis
Justice and Reform
- From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality by Michael J. Klaman
- Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Memoirs/ biographies
- Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin by John D’Emilio
- Mississippi Solo: A Travel Quest by Eddy L. Harris
- The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharris
Modern Civil Rights Movement
- Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights by Tananarive Due and Patricia Stephens Due
- March (Books 1-3) by John Lewis
- The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharris
- Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch
- Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 by Taylor Branch
- At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68 by Taylor Branch
Science/Medicine
- Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy, MD
- Hidden Figures by Margot Shetterly
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Slave narratives
- 12 Years A Slave by Solomon Northup
- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs
Sports
- Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teamsby Robert W. Peterson
- Southern League: The True Story of Baseball, Civil Rights, and the Deep South’s Most Compelling Pennant Race by Larry Colton
- Glory Road: My Story of the 1966 NCAA Basketball Championship and How One Team Triumphed Against the Odds and Changed America Forever by Don Haskins and Daniel Wetzel
Travel
- Mississippi Solo: A River Quest by Eddy L. Harris
- Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen
Women
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights by Tananarive Due and Patricia Stephens Due
- Hidden Figures by Margot Shetterly
- The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharris
Adult Fiction
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
- Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
- Salvage the Bones or Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
- The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Young Adult Nonfiction (Older Kids and Teens)
- Fight Like a Girl: 50 Feminists who Changed the World by Laura Barcella
- March graphic series by John Lewis (trilogy, graphic nonfiction)
- Racial Profiling: Everyday Inequality by Alison Behnke
- Trouble Maker for Justice: The Story of Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the March on Washington by Jacqueline Houtman (young adult biography)
Young Adult Fiction (Older Kids and Teens)
- All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
- American Street by Ibi Aanu Zoboi
- American Girl, Melody: March on Washington by Bonnie Bader
- Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- If You’re Going to a March by Martha Freeman
- Monster by Walter Dean Myer
- One Crazy Sumer by Rita Williams-Garcia
- Refugee by Alan Gratz
- The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake
- X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz
Young Children (Picture book format)
- The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Rafael López
- Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn
- Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson
- Love Will See You Through: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Six Guiding Beliefs (As Told by His Niece) by Angela Farris Watkins
- Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to Become Malcolm X by Ilyasah Shabazz, illustrated by AG Ford
- Martin’s Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Bryan Collier
- My Hair is a Garden by Cozbi A. Cabrera
- Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis by Jabari Asim, illustrated by E.B. Lewis
- Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh
- Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Brian Pinkney
- Something Happened in Our Town by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard, illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin
- That’s Not Fair! Emma Tenayuca’s Struggle for Justice by Carmen Tafolla and Sharyll Tenayuca, illustrated by Terry Ybáñez
- Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Ekua Holmes
- Viola Desmond Won’t Be Budged! by Jody Nyasha Warner and Richard Rudnicki
- The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander
- Young Water Protectors: A Story About Standing Rock by Aslan and Kelly Tudor
‘We Need Diverse Books’ is a favorite website for locating books for children which promote diversity – https://diversebooks.org/
Feature Films
- 12 Years a Slave. Directed by Steve McQueen. A true story of a free black musician sold into slavery.
- American History X. Directed by Tony Kaye and written by David McKenna. A story about two brothers in LA involved in the white supremacy and neo-Nazi movement.
- Crash. Writer/director Paul Haggis interweaves several connected stories about race, class, family, and gender in Los Angeles in the aftermath of 9/11.
- Dear White People. A film about multi-racial students experiencing race, specifically on a college campus.
- Do The Right Thing. Spike Lee takes on racial tensions that erupt during a hot day in a poor black New York City neighborhood.
- Get Out. A horror film made to show the audience what racially motivated anxiety of being a black person feels like in a fictional but truth-based movie.
- Hidden Figures. Three brilliant African-American women at NASA working in the space program as some of the brains behind the launching of John Glenn into space. More person-centered than the book, which explores the larger cultural context of time and place.
- Loving. Interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving fall in love and get married in 1958, then arrested as it is against the law.
- Malcolm X. Spike Lee’s tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation.
- When They See Us. Ava DuVernay’s raw look into the infamous 1980 Central Park Five Case.
Documentaries
- 13th. Ava DuVernay’s documentary about the13th Amendment and its impact on incarceration.
- The Apollo. The tale of one of the first theaters that allowed Black people to both attend and perform.
- Dark Girls. In this emotional and heartfelt documentary directors Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry set out to examine why skin-color bias persists among people of African descent, and how it affects the lives of women on the receiving end.
- Eyes on the Prize. PBS multi-part series on the civil rights movement.
- Freedom Riders. PBS film about the challenges to interstate travel laws.
- Here I Stand. An extraordinary documentary directed by St. Clair Bourne originally aired on PBS as part of the “American Masters” series. It charts the life and artistry of Paul Robeson (1898-1976) who won international acclaim as a concert performer, stage actor, recording artist, and film actor.
- I Am Not Your Negro. A film lecture based on the book James Baldwin never finished to examine race in America then and now.
- Neshoba: The Price of Freedom. The trial of Edgar Ray Killen, the man who orchestrated the killings of Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney.
- Nina Simone – What Happened, Miss Simone? Classically trained pianist, dive-bar chanteuse, black power icon, and legendary recording artist Nina Simone lived a life of brutal honesty, musical genius, and tortured melancholy.
- White People. MTV’s ‘White People’ is a groundbreaking documentary on race that aims to look at that topic from the viewpoint of young white people living in America today.
1- The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
by Isabel Wilkerson. Publisher:Random House ISBN: 978-0-679-44432-9
2- The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery
Edited by Rochelle Riley Published by Wayne State University Press
Foreword by Nikole Hannah-Jones ISBN: 9780814345153
3- The Souls of Black Folk A Book by W. E. B. Du Bois
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN-10: 1505223377 ISBN-13: 978-1505223378
4- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau; ISBN-10: 0812993543
ISBN-13: 978-0812993547
5- Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in
America by Tanner Colby
ISBN 067002371X (ISBN13: 9780670023714)
6- Parting The Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63 by Taylor Branch
Simon & Schuster ISBN-978-0-671-68742-7
7- Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65 by Taylor Branch
ISBN-13 978-0-684-84809-9
8- At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years 1965-68 by Taylor Branch
Simon & Schuster ISBN 978-0-684-85713-8
9- White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
by Carol Anderson, Ph.D. Bloomsbury ISBN 978-1-63286-412-3
10- White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America
by Nancy Isenberg Viking ISBN 978-0-670-78597-1
11- American Slavery, American Freedom by Edmund S. Morgan
Norton ISBN 0-393-32494-X
12- Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook
Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
Touchstone ISBN 978-0-7432-9628-1
13- From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for
Racial Equality by Micheal J. Klarman
Oxford University Press ISBN0-19-512903-2
14- Stamped From The Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas
in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Nation Books ISBN 9781568584645