RACE EQUITY RESOURCE HUB
The Case for Reparations, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Description: The Case for Reparations is an article written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and published in The Atlantic in 2014. The article focuses on redlining and housing discrimination through the eyes of people who have experienced it and the devastating effects it has had on the African-American community.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander
Description: The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community—and all of us—to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.
The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
Description: In this historical fiction novel, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor: engineers and conductors operate a secret network of actual tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the terrors of the antebellum era, he weaves in the saga of our nation, from the brutal abduction of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. This is both the gripping tale of one woman’s will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Description: In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion.
Angela Davis: An Autobiography, by Angela Davis
Description: Angela Davis is a political activist at the cutting edge of the Black Liberation, feminist, queer, and prison abolitionist movements for more than 50 years. Here she describes her journey from a childhood in Birmingham, Alabama, to one of the most significant political trials of the century; from her political activity in high school to her work with the U.S. Communist Party, the Black Panther Party, and the Soledad Brothers; and from the faculty of the Philosophy Department at UCLA to the FBI’s list of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
Women, Race & Class, by Angela Davis
Description: Angela Davis provides a powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. Davis shows readers how the inequalities between Black and white women influence the contemporary issues of rape, reproductive freedom, housework and child care in this bold and indispensable work.
Fumbling Toward Repair: A Workbook for Community Accountability Facilitators, by Mariame Kaba and Shira Hassan
Description: This workbook that includes reflection questions, skill assessments, facilitation tips, helpful definitions, activities, and hard-learned lessons intended to support people who have taken on the coordination and facilitation of formal community accountability processes to address interpersonal harm & violence.
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World, by Tracy Kidder
Description: In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling: to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. Kidder’s magnificent account takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that “the only real nation is humanity.”
Heavy: An American Memoir, by Kiese Laymon
Description: Laymon writes about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. He charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, Laymon us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free.
Just Mercy, by Bryan Stevenson
Description: An unforgettable true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to end mass incarceration in America. Just Mercy tells the story of the Equal Justice Initiative, from the early days with a small staff facing the nation’s highest death sentencing and execution rates, through a successful campaign to challenge the cruel practice of sentencing children to die in prison, to revolutionary projects designed to confront Americans with our history of racial injustice.
Attica, a documentary by Tracy Curry and Stanley Nelson. This unnervingly vivid dive into the 1971 uprising from Emmy® winning director Stanley Nelson sheds new light on the enduring violence and racism of the prison system and highlights the urgent, ongoing need for reform 50 years later.
Colin in Black & White. Colin Kaepernick collaborated with renowned film director Ava DuVernay to create this drama series recounting his formative years navigating race, class, and culture. ‘We explore the racial conflicts I faced as an adopted Black man in a white community,’ says Kaepernick.
Harlem. The 10-episode series was created and produced by Tracy Oliver. It follows four girlfriends who met while attending New York University and are now in their thirties, living in Harlem, the mecca of Black culture in America, as they try to balance love, life, and their careers as working professionals.
Moonlight. Written and directed by Barry Jenkins, this Oscar-winning film is based on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s unpublished semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. It is the story of a young African-American man grappling with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.
Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) a documentary directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, examines the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which was held at Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) in Harlem and lasted for six weeks. Despite having a large attendance and performers such as Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone, The 5th Dimension, The Staple Singers, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Blinky Williams, Sly and the Family Stone and the Chambers Brothers, the festival was seen as obscure in pop culture, something that the documentarians investigate.
Truth Tellers: An Artist’s Journey to Uphold Our Founding Ideals, Kane Lewis Productions. Film Trailer is here. Truth Tellers is a documentary film chronicling the lives of courageous Americans fighting for peace, racial equity, environmental justice and indigenous rights through the eyes of Robert Shetterly, a long time activist and artist. The film explores the intersection of these issues stressing the urgency of coming together to confront them and galvanizing our resolve to uphold our country’s founding ideals.
Why We Should Talk About Bill Cosby is a four-part documentary directed by W. Kamau Bell. The series was established to examine “Bill Cosby’s descent from ‘America’s Dad’ to alleged sexual predator,” according to its official description. “The series explores the complex story of Cosby’s life and work, weighing his actions against his indisputable global influence through interviews with comedians, cultural commentators, journalists, and women who share their most personal, harrowing encounters with Cosby.
Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, by Joy Harjo
Power, by Audrey Lorde
Letters from the Porch, by Sunni Patterson (YouTube video)
Amber Ruffin. Amber Ruffin is an award-winning writer, executive producer, and host of The Amber Ruffin Show on Peacock. She also is a writer and performer for NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Black Girl in Maine Shay Stuart-Bouley lives on Peaks Island. She is the executive director at Community Change Inc
Ericka Hart. Educator. Activist. Good resources on Instagram and other platforms
Melanated Social Work Podcast. Four Black men met at a social work school in Boston, and after graduation, created a podcast that focuses on the intersections of race, masculinity, politics, and mental health in order to decolonize and destigmatize healing practices in communities of color.
