Structural Racism Resource Base: Structural Racism Recommended Books

"An enlightening examination of the intertwined roles of collective struggle and study in higher education and what this relationship can teach us about settler colonialism."

"Whether in political debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many Americans, regardless of party affiliation, will say proudly that we are a nation of immigrants. In this bold new book, historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz asserts this ideology is harmful and dishonest because it serves to mask and diminish the US's history of settler colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, slavery, and structural inequality, all of which we still grapple with today."

"Septima Clark played one of the most essential, but little-recognized roles in the Civil Rights Movement. Born in 1898 in Charleston, South Carolina, she was a teacher in the public schools until 1956, when she was fired for refusing to disavow her membership in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Subsequently, she worked for the Highlander Folk School helping to set up Citizenship Schools throughout the south where black adults could learn to read and prepare to vote."

"In SETTLER MEMORY, Kevin Bruyneel grapples with this displacement of Indigeneity and with the ongoing power of settler colonialism in American political theory and culture. He argues that the faint trace of Indigeneity remains essential to the politics and discourse of race in America, and inattention to it undermines the effort to understand Indigenous politics while also stalling the effort to advance the conversation around race itself."

"A powerful, eagerly anticipated exploration (past and present) of white supremacy in the teachings of our national education system, its depth, breadth, and persistence--and how, through generations of our nation's most esteemed educators and textbooks, racism has been insidiously fostered--North and South--at all levels of learning."

"What if social transformation and liberation isn't about waiting for someone else to come along and save us? What if ordinary people have the power to collectively free ourselves? In this timely collection of essays and interviews, Mariame Kaba reflects on the deep work of abolition and transformative political struggle."

"In the spring of 2013, seventeen people gathered at the North Carolina state legislature to protest extreme legislation passed by the General Assembly attacking health insurance, unemployment insurance, labor, and voting rights. The ministers, labor, and human rights activists began praying, singing, and chanting, and were ultimately arrested. That group grew into crowds of thousands at successive "Moral Mondays" rallies, and by summer's end nearly 1,000 people had been arrested, making this sustained moral protest one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in U.S. history."

"A collection of sermons and speeches that lay out a groundbreaking vision for intersectional organizing, paired with inspirational and practical essays from activists in today's Poor People's Campaign."

"A modern-day civil rights champion tells the stirring story of how he helped start a movement to bridge America's racial divide. Over the summer of 2013, the Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II led more than a hundred thousand people at rallies across North Carolina to protest restrictions to voting access and an extreme makeover of state government."

"In a single, rousing sermon, the celebrated Reverend William J. Barber II of the Poor People’s Campaign makes an impassioned argument whose message could not be It's time for change, and the time needs you."

"This momentous work offers a groundbreaking history of the early civil rights movement in the South. Using wide-ranging archival work and extensive interviews with movement participants, Charles Payne uncovers a chapter of American social history forged locally, in places like Greenwood, Mississippi, where countless unsung African Americans risked their lives for the freedom struggle."

"This powerful, provocative survey is organized around the key issues of Afro-American history: Africa and slavery, family, religion, sex and racism, politics, economics, education, criminal justice, discrimination and protest movements, and black nationalism."

"This eloquent and provocative autobiography records a day by day, sometimes hour by hour, compassionate account of the events that took place in the streets, meetings, churches, jails, and in people's hearts and minds in the 1960s civil rights movement."

"In these eloquent essays, the noted scholar and activist Vincent Harding reflects on the forgotten legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the meaning of his life today. Many of these reflections are inspired by the ambiguous message surrounding the official celebration of King's birthday."

"The personal story of the civil rights leader's work and life discusses his witness to and experiences with the prison farms and lynch mobs of Mississippi, and the efforts of Black Power and Pan-Africanism."

"Among histories of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, there are few personal narratives better than this one. Besides being an insider's account of the rise and fall of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), it is an eyewitness report of the strategies and the conflicts in the crucial battle zones as the fight for racial justice raged across the South."

"To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals: self-defense vs. nonviolence, Black power vs. civil rights, the sword vs. the shield. The struggle for Black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. While nonviolent direct action is remembered as an unassailable part of American democracy, the movement's militancy is either vilified or erased outright. In The Sword and the Shield, Peniel E. Joseph upends these misconceptions and reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different family histories, religious affiliations, and class backgrounds, inspired each other throughout their adult lives."

"This work is an experiment in history, solidarity, and hope. It is part of a continuing attempt to discover and develop the sources of creative tension among my responsibilities as a historian, my commitment to human liberation, and my urgent determination to keep faith with that magnificent company of witnesses..."

"In The Third Reconstruction, distinguished historian Peniel E. Joseph offers a powerful and personal new interpretation of recent history. The racial reckoning that unfolded in 2020, he argues, marked the climax of a Third Reconstruction: a new struggle for citizenship and dignity for Black Americans, just as momentous as the movements that arose after the Civil War and during the civil rights era."

"Dr. King's best-selling account of the civil rights movement in Birmingham during the spring and summer of 1963. Often applauded as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s most incisive and eloquent book, Why We Can't Wait recounts the Birmingham campaign in vivid detail, while underscoring why 1963 was such a crucial year for the civil rights movement."

"Essays by 30 authors attempt to reclaim and to create heightened awareness about individuals, contributions, and struggles that have made African American women's survival and progress possible."

"Since the publication of its first edition in 1990, Unequal Sisters has been considered one of the most influential and groundbreaking works in the field of women's studies. Bringing together a broad, multicultural view, it presents the best scholarship available on the issues of race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, and class in its attempt to provide a more accurate and more inclusive history of women in the United States."