Welcome
This guide is a collaboration by the librarians in Gorgas Library in response to the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and Black Lives Matter uprisings in the summer of 2020. Our goal is to bring together some of the many resources on race and racism that have been shared on social media, and to provide access to those resources for University of Alabama community members. We hope this resource guide will be one part of larger efforts by individuals and communities as we work toward racial justice.
We welcome your feedback and suggestions to improve this guide and keep it up to date. You can contact us here. If you would like to suggest an item for purchase, you can do so by filling out this form.
Background
Reading lists have long been a tool of anti-racist activism. Learn below about the Black women who compiled the original reading lists, and ways to go beyond reading to action.
Anti-Racist Starter Kit
Anti-racist pedagogy researcher Victoria Alexander shared her recommended anti-racist reading on Twitter, grouped by topic and level. We share the books in her Anti-Racist Starter Kit below.
Visit her original tweet for more reading recommendations organized by topic (many are also linked elsewhere in this guide) and her Anti-Racist Resource Guide.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Call Number: Gorgas E185.61 .K358 2016Publication Date: 2016Print Book
A People's History of the United States by Call Number: Gorgas E178 .Z75 2001Publication Date: 2001Print Book: 2 Copies Available
So You Want to Talk about Race by Call Number: Gorgas E184.A1 O454 2018Publication Date: 2018Print Book
Fiction and Literature
Black fiction author Jasmine Guillory writes, "Black lives are not a problem to be solved or an academic text that can be studied. To recognize Black lives as ones to celebrate, empathize with and care about, here’s your antiracism work: read more fiction by and about Black people."
Beyond This Guide
Web Resources:
- Anti-Racism Resources for All AgesDr. Nicole A. Cooke, anti-racist librarian and Augusta Baker Chair at the University of South Carolina, maintains this list of articles, videos, podcasts, and books.
- 158 Resources to Understand Racism in AmericaThese articles, videos, podcasts and websites from the Smithsonian chronicle the history of anti-black violence and inequality in the United States
- Institutionalized Racism: A SyllabusThis list of open-access scholarship explores the history of racism that undergirds current events.