Non-fiction
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
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.
Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
Available as an eBook through Hoopla (with no waiting!)
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document.
Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
Chokehold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler
Cops, politicians, and ordinary people are afraid of black men. The result is the Chokehold: laws and practices that treat every African American man like a thug. Butler, an African American former federal prosecutor shows that the system is working exactly the way it’s supposed to. Black men are always under watch, and police violence is widespread–all with the support of judges and politicians.
Also available as an eBook on Hoopla (with no waiting!).
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence.
Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Dunbar-Ortiz challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them.
Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
Available as an eAudiobook through Hoopla (with no waiting!)
Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson
Fifty years ago Malcolm X told a white woman who asked what she could do for the cause, ‘Nothing.’ Michael Eric Dyson believes he was wrong. Now he responds to that question. If society is to make real racial progress, people must face difficult truths, including being honest about how Black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted.
Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
A profound new rendering of the struggle by African-Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counter-revolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring racist stain on the American mind.
Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
How To Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram Z Kendi
Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.
Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad
Me and White Supremacy takes readers on a 28-day journey of how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.
Also available as an eBook (no waiting!) or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
Available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Hoopla (with no waiting!)
Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about enabling communication across racial and ethnic divides.
Also available as an eBook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America.
Also available as an eBook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
Biography/Memoir
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Becoming is the memoir of former United States first lady Michelle Obama published in 2018. Described by the author as a deeply personal experience, the book talks about her roots and how she found her voice, as well as her time in the White House, her public health campaign, and her role as a mother.
Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell by W. Kamau Bell
A humorous, well-informed take on the world today, tackling a wide range of issues, such as race relations; fatherhood; the state of law enforcement today; comedians and superheroes; right-wing politics; left-wing politics; failure; his interracial marriage; white men; his up-bringing by very strong-willed, race-conscious, yet ideologically opposite parents; his early days struggling to find his comedic voice, then his later days struggling to find his comedic voice.
Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice.
Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Coates takes readers along on his journey through America’s history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings–moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago’s South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America’s ‘long war on black people,’ or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police.
Also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
Black man in a white coat: a doctor’s reflections on race and medicine by Damon Tweedy, M.D
When Tweedy began medical school, he envisioned a bright future where his segregated, working-class background would become irrelevant. Instead he found himself grappling with race, bias, and the unique health problems of black Americans, and met a professor who bluntly questioned whether he belonged in medical school. In examining the complex ways in which both black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine, he illustrates the complex social, cultural, and economic factors at the root of most health problems in the black community.
Also available as an eBook through Overdrive and the Libby app.
More Resources
Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources – A working document put together for those who want to learn how to be allies for anti-racism.
Talking About Race – Guide put together by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History & Culture.
How to Talk to Kids about Race – 10 tips from EmbraceRace.org
Conversations About Race Ebook Collection – eBooks available to borrow instantly from Hoopla
Conversations About Race Audiobook Collection – eAudiobooks available to borrow instantly from Hoopla.
Films on Race – Collection of movies and documentaries available to watch instantly from Hoopla.