Juneteenth

Juneteenth commemorates the day the last enslaved people were emancipated in the United States on June 19, 1865.

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The 1619 Project : a new origin story

The 1619 Project : a new origin story

2021

The animating idea of The 1619 Project is that our national narrative is more accurately told if we begin not on July 4, 1776, but in late August of 1619, when a ship arrived in Jamestown bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival inaugurated a barbaric and unprecedented system of chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the country's very origin. The 1619 Project tells this new origin story, placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country. Orchestrated by the editors of The New York Times Magazine, led by MacArthur "genius" and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, this collection of essays and historical vignettes includes some of the most outstanding journalists, thinkers, and scholars of American history and culture--including Linda Villarosa, Jamelle Bouie, Jeneen Interlandi, Matthew Desmond, Wesley Morris, and Bryan Stevenson. Together, their work shows how the tendrils of 1619--of slavery and resistance to slavery--reach into every part of our contemporary culture, from voting, housing and healthcare, to the way we sing and dance, the way we tell stories, and the way we worship. Interstitial works of flash fiction and poetry bring the history to life through the imaginative interpretations of some of our greatest writers. The 1619 Project ultimately sends a very strong message: We must have a clear vision of this history if we are to understand our present dilemmas. Only by reckoning with this difficult history and trying as hard as we can to understand its powerful influence on our present, can we prepare ourselves for a more just future.

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Between the world and me

Between the world and me

Coates, Ta-Nehisi, author
2015


Caste : the origins of our discontents

Caste : the origins of our discontents

Wilkerson, Isabel, author
2020

Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.

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Conjure women

Conjure women

Atakora, Afia, author
2020

After the Civil War, midwife May Belle, her precocious and observant daughter Rue, who is reluctant to follow in her mother's footsteps, and their master's daughter Varina are all affected in different ways by the birth of an accursed child, who sets the townspeople alight with fear and a spreading superstition that threatens their newly won, tenuous freedom.

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Dear Martin

Dear Martin

Stone, Nic, author
2018

Writing letters to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., seventeen-year-old college-bound Justyce McAllister struggles to face the reality of race relations today and how they are shaping him.

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Four hundred souls : a community history of African America, 1619-2019

Four hundred souls : a community history of African America, 1619-2019

2021

First single-volume history of African Americans - written entirely by African Americans - in a generation. This book will cover the full swathe of African American history, in the voices of African Americans. A community history collected by a historian of the African American community; most of the pieces are written in 2019 to commemorate the significance of four hundred years of storytelling.

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Hell of a book : or, the altogether factual, wholly bona fide story of a big dreams, hard luck, American-Made mad kid

Hell of a book : or, the altogether factual, wholly bona fide story of a big dreams, hard luck, American-Made mad kid

Mott, Jason, author
2021

An African-American author sets out on a cross-country book tour to promote his bestselling novel. This novel also tells the story of Soot, a young Black boy living in a rural town in the recent past, and The Kid, a possibly imaginary child who appears to the author on his tour. This heartbreaking and magical book is about family, love of parents and children, art, and money - and the tragic story of a police shooting playing over and over on the news.

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Homegoing

Homegoing

Gyasi, Yaa, author
2016


Hood feminism : notes from the women that a movement forgot

Hood feminism : notes from the women that a movement forgot

Kendall, Mikki, author
2020

A collection of essays taking aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women.

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How to be an antiracist

How to be an antiracist

Kendi, Ibram X., author
2019

"The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it -- and then dismantle it." Ibram X. Kendi's concept of antiracism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America -- but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. He asks us to think about what an antiracist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.

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I'm still here : Black dignity in a world made for whiteness

I'm still here : Black dignity in a world made for whiteness

Brown, Austin Channing, author
2018

The author's first encounter with a racialized America came at age seven, when her parents told her they named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. She grew up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, and has spent her life navigating America's racial divide as a writer, a speaker, and an expert helping organizations practice genuine inclusion. While so many institutions claim to value diversity in their mission statements, many fall short of matching actions to words. Brown highlights how white middle-class evangelicalism has participated in the rise of racial hostility, and encourages the reader to confront apathy and recognize God's ongoing work in the world.

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Just mercy : a story of justice and redemption

Just mercy : a story of justice and redemption

Stevenson, Bryan, author
2015

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.

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A little devil in America : notes in praise of Black performance

A little devil in America : notes in praise of Black performance

Abdurraqib, Hanif, 1983- author
2021

From breakout writer and peerless new voice Hanif Abdurraqib comes a personal and introspective examination of Black performance in America, in which race, history, culture, and entertainment collide.

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A mighty long way : my journey to justice at Little Rock Central High School

A mighty long way : my journey to justice at Little Rock Central High School

LaNier, Carlotta Walls
2009

When 14-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up to Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957, she and eight other black students only wanted to make it to class. But the journey of the "Little Rock Nine" would lead the nation on an even longer and much more turbulent path, one that would challenge prevailing attitudes, break down barriers, and forever change America. Descended from a line of proud black landowners and businessmen, Carlotta was raised to believe that education was the key to success. After Brown v. Board of Education, the teenager volunteered to be among the first black students--she was the youngest--to integrate nearby Central High School. But getting through the door was only the first of many trials. This inspiring memoir is not only a testament to the power of one to make a difference but also of the sacrifices made by families and communities that found themselves a part of history.--From publisher description.

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The purpose of power : how we come together when We fall apart

The purpose of power : how we come together when We fall apart

Garza, Alicia, 1981- author
2020

Coupled with the speed and networking capacities of social media, #blacklivesmatter was the hashtag heard round the world. But Alicia Garza well knew that the distance between a hashtag and real change would take more than a single facebook to cover. It would take a movement. Garza was a lifelong activist who had spent the previous decades educating herself on the hard lessons of organizing. This is the story of an activist's education on the streets and in the homes of regular people around the country who found ways to come together to create change.

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Stony the road : reconstruction, white supremacy, and the rise of Jim Crow

Stony the road : reconstruction, white supremacy, and the rise of Jim Crow

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., author.
2019

"A profound new rendering of the struggle by African Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counterrevolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring stain on the American mind. The story of the abolition of slavery in the aftermath of the Civil War is a familiar one, as is the civil rights revolution that transformed the nation after World War II. But the century in between remains a mystery: If emancipation came in Lincoln's America, why was it necessary to march in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s America? In a history that moves from Reconstruction to the Harlem Renaissance, Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of our leading chroniclers of the African American experience, brings a lifetime of wisdom to bear as a scholar, filmmaker, and public intellectual to answer that question. Interwoven with this history, Stony the Road examines America's first postwar clash of images utilizing modern mass media to divide, overwhelm--and resist. Enforcing a stark color line and ensuring the rollback of the rights of formerly enslaved people, racist images were reproduced on an unprecedented scale thanks to advances in technology such as chromolithography, which enabled their widespread dissemination in advertisements, on postcards, and on an astonishing array of everyday objects. Yet, during the same period when the Supreme Court stamped 'separate but equal' as the law of the land, African Americans advanced the concept of the 'New Negro' to renew the fight for Reconstruction's promise. Against the steepest of odds, they waged war by other means: countering depictions of black people as ignorant, debased, and inhuman with images of a vanguard of educated and upstanding black women and men who were talented, cosmopolitan, and urbane. The story Gates tells begins with Union victory in the Civil War and the liberation of nearly four million enslaved people. But the terror unleashed by white paramilitary groups in the former Confederacy, combined with deteriorating economic conditions and diminished Northern will, restored 'home rule' to the South. One of the most violent periods in our history followed the retreat from Reconstruction, with thousands of African Americans murdered or lynched and many more afflicted by the degrading impositions of Jim Crow segregation. An essential tour through one of America's fundamental historical tragedies, [this book] is also a story of heroic resistance, as figures from Frederick Douglass to W E.B. Du Bois created a counternarrative, and culture, inside the lion's mouth. Gates charts the noble struggle of black people to defeat racism and force the country to honor the 'new birth of freedom' that Lincoln pledged would be the legacy of the Civil War, and uncovers the roots of racism in our time. Understanding this bitter struggle is essential if America's deepest wounds are ever truly to heal."-- From Dust jacket.

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The underground railroad

The underground railroad

Whitehead, Colson, 1969- author
2018

Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans. When Caesar tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. But Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

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The warmth of other suns : the epic story of America's great migration

The warmth of other suns : the epic story of America's great migration

Wilkerson, Isabel, author
2010

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.

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The water dancer

The water dancer

Coates, Ta-Nehisi, author
2019

Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage--and lost his mother and all memory of her when he was a child--but he is also gifted with a mysterious power. Hiram almost drowns when he crashes a carriage into a river, but is saved from the depths by a force he doesn't understand, a blue light that lifts him up and lands him a mile away. This strange brush with death forces a new urgency on Hiram's private rebellion. So begins an unexpected journey into the covert war on slavery that takes Hiram from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia's proud plantations to desperate guerrilla cells in the wilderness, from the coffin of the deep South to dangerously utopic movements in the North.

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