“Racism is as profoundly American as the Declaration of Independence.”
— Dr. Kenneth Clark
“Prejudice is an emotional commitment to ignorance.”
— Dr. Nathan Rutstein
Fill in the gaps in your knowledge of American history and the experiences of African Americans and “non-white” racial and ethnic groups. Included below are books, articles, videos, audio recordings, statistics, research studies, tests, syllabi, teaching resources, and organizations addressing the historical and current realities of racial inequality and personal, interpersonal, and structural racism in America.
If you find this list to be overwhelming, try starting with these 7 resources that will take under 3 hours to do, read, and watch. 3 hours that can dramatically change your perspective on “‘race’ in America”.
1. Implicit Association Test
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
“The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report. The IAT may be especially interesting if it shows that you have an implicit attitude that you did not know about. For example, you may believe that women and men should be equally associated with science, but your automatic associations could show that you (like many others) associate men with science more than you associate women with science.” Take it and begin to understand how your brain makes judgements that you are unaware of.2. The Untold History of Post-Civil War ‘Neo-Slavery’ (NPR, 2008, 30:28)
Free, streaming online.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=890511153. The Skin I’m In: I’ve been interrogated by police more than 50 times — all because I’m black, April, 2015, by Desmond Cole
http://torontolife.com/city/life/skin-im-ive-interrogated-police-50-times-im-black/4. White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, 1990, by Peggy McIntosh
http://ted.coe.wayne.edu/ele3600/mcintosh.html5. White Privilege, video interview with Peggy McIntosh, 2012 (29:31)
http://www.beyondwhiteness.com/2012/02/19/peggy-mcintosh-interview-on-white-privilege/6. “We Need to Talk about an Injustice” 2012, 23 minutes, Bryan Stevenson
http://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice?language=en
“In an engaging and personal talk — with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks — human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America’s justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country’s black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America’s unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.”7. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism, 2015, by Dr. Robin DiAngelo
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/white-fragility-why-its-so-hard-to-talk-to-white-people-about-racism-twlm/
Dr. Robin DiAngelo explains why white people implode when talking about race.
BOOKS (in order of publication, newest to oldest)
(Memoir, 2018)
In Full Color: Finding My Place in a Black and White World, by Rachel Dolezal
https://smile.amazon.com/Full-Color-Finding-Place-Black/dp/194464816X/
(Memoir, 2018)
Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime, by Ron Stallworth
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Klansman-Undercover-Investigation-Lifetime/dp/1250313724
(Non-Fiction, 2017)
Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice (4th edition), by Paul Kivel
https://www.amazon.com/Uprooting-Racism-People-Racial-Justice/dp/0865718652
(Memoir, Documentary, 2017)
I am Not Your Negro, by James Baldwin and Raouel Peck
https://smile.amazon.com/I-Am-Not-Your-Negro/dp/0525434690/r
http://www.worldcat.org/title/i-am-not-your-negro/oclc/995049890&referer=brief_results
(History, 2017)
Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
https://www.amazon.com/Never-Caught-Washingtons-Relentless-Pursuit/dp/1501126393/
(Memoir, 2015)
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ta-nehisi-coates/between-the-world-and-me/
(Memoir, 2014)
Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race, by Debby Irving
http://www.amazon.com/Waking-White-Finding-Myself-Story/dp/0991331303
(History, 2014)
James DeWolf and the Rhode Island Slave Trade, by Cynthia Mestad Johnson
http://www.amazon.com/JAMES-DEWOLF-RHODE-ISLAND-SLAVE/dp/1626194793
(History / Memoir, 2014)
Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families Who Share the Tomlinson Name — One White, One Black, by Chris Tomlinson
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/chris-tomlinson/tomlinson-hill/
(Historical Fiction, 2014)
The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd
http://suemonkkidd.com/books/the-invention-of-wings/reading-groups-2/
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/sue-monk-kidd/invention-of-wings/
(Non-Fiction, 2013)
Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald (creators of the Implicit Association Test)
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mahzarin-r-banaji/blindspot-biases-good-people/
(History, 2012, Second Edition)
The Invention of the White Race, Vols. 1 and 2, by Theodore Allen (Jeffrey B. Perry, editor)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Invention-White-Race-Volume/dp/1844677699
(History / Social Sciences, 2011)
The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nell-irvin-painter/the-history-of-white-people/
(Non-Fiction / Memoir, 2011)
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son, by Tim Wise
http://www.amazon.com/White-Like-Me-Reflections-Privileged/dp/1593764251
(History / Biography 2010)
Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883–1918, by Jeffery B. Perry
https://www.amazon.com/
(Non-Fiction, 2010)
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/michelle-alexander/the-new-jim-crow/
(History, 2010)
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/Isabel-Wilkerson-65858/the-warmth-of-other-suns/
(History, 2008)
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, by Douglas A. Blackmon
http://www.amazon.com/Slavery-Another-Name-Re-Enslavement-Americans/dp/0385722702
(Non-Fiction, 2007)
Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California, by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Gulag-Opposition-Globalizing-California/dp/0520242017
(Memoir / Autobiography, 2004)
Blood Done Sign My Name, by Timothy B. Tyson
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Done-Sign-My-Name/dp/1400083117
(This book was also made into a movie)
(Non-Fiction, 2002)
Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, by Randall Kennedy
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/randall-kennedy/nigger/
(Memoir / Non-Fiction, 2001)
Learning to Be White: Money, Race and God in America, by Thandeka
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Be-White-Money-America/dp/0826412920
(Memoir, 1999)
Learning to be White: Money, Race, and God in America, by Thandeka
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Be-White-Money-America/dp/0826412920
(History / Biography / Memoir, 1998)
Slaves in the Family, by Edward Ball
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/edward-ball/slaves-in-the-family/
(Memoir, 1996)
Bone Black, by bell hooks
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/bell-hooks/bone-black/
(Non-Fiction, 1995)
Killing Rage: Ending Racism, by bell hooks
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/bell-hooks/killing-rage/
(Anthropology, 1984)
White Racism: A Psychohistory, by Joel Kovel
http://www.amazon.com/White-Racism-Psychohistory-Joel-Kovel/dp/0231057970
(Memoir, 1969)
The Hidden Wound, by Wendell Berry
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/wendell-berry-10/the-hidden-wound/
(See also, “Wendell Berry’s Reflections on Racism,” 2013, by Walter G. Moss: https://www.laprogressive.com/wendell-berry-on-racism/ )
(Autobiography / Memoir, 1965)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alex-haley/the-autobiography-of-malcolm-x/
(Fiction, 1952)
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ralph-ellison/invisible-man/
More books:
THE HATE YOU GIVE
W.E.B. DuBois BLACK RECONSTRUCTION
Ronald Takaki A DIFFERENT MIRROR
Eric Lott LOVE AND THEFT
Noel Ignatiev HOW THE IRISH BECAME WHITE
Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall AGENTS OF REPRESSION: The FBI’s Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement
Alexander Saxton THE RISE AND FALL OF THE WHITE REPUBLIC
bell hooks BLACK LOOKS
Andrew Hacker TWO NATIONS: BLACK AND WHITE, SEPARATE, HOSTILE, UNEQUAL
Rev. angel Kyodo williams, BEING BLACK
Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Llama Rod Owens, Dr. Jasmine Seydullah, RADICAL DHARMA: TALKING RACE, LIBERATION, and LOVE
More authors:
Maya Angelou
James Baldwin
Angela Davis
Michael Eric Dyson
Langston Hughes
Zora Neal Hurston
Toni Morrison
Suzan-Lori Parks (playwright)
Zadie Smith
Cornel West
Ian Haney Lopez
Noel Ignatiev
ESSAYS / ARTICLES
My Great-Grandfather, the Nigerian Slave-trader
2018, by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/my-great-grandfather-the-nigerian-slave-trader
Do You Have Advantage Blindness?
2018, by Ben Fuchs, Megan Reitz, and John Higgins
https://hbr.org/2018/04/do-you-have-advantage-blindness
Dear White People: Be more like Gregg Popovich, The Intercept, October 2017, by Shaun King
https://theintercept.com/2017/10/17/gregg-popovich-trump-white-privledge-race-kaepernick/
Bleaching blackness is about more than racism, 2016, by Kovie Biakolo
https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/07/23/bleaching-blackness-about-more-than-racism/OCecft5cQW17kzmOermN4J/story.html
White Debt: Reckoning with what is owed — and what can never be repaid — for racial privilege, 2015, by Eula Biss
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/magazine/white-debt.html#commentsContainer
Bryan Stevenson on Charleston and Our Real Problem with Race, June 2015, by Corey G. Johnson
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/06/24/bryan-stevenson-on-charleston-and-our-real-problem-with-race#.eRDCDtZ6l
The Skin I’m In: I’ve been interrogated by police more than 50 times — all because I’m black, April, 2015, by Desmond Cole
http://torontolife.com/city/life/skin-im-ive-interrogated-police-50-times-im-black/
15 Things Your City Can Do Right Now to End Police Brutality, July 2015, by Zak Cheney Rice
https://mic.com/articles/121572/15-things-your-city-can-do-right-now-to-end-police-brutality#.M1OpaF8bG
The Impact of Everything on Diversity, 2015, by Amy Nguyen
https://medium.com/@amyngyn/the-impact-of-diversity-on-everything-b82e71140290#.mdvxrqu9l
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism, 2015, by Dr. Robin DiAngelo
https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/white-fragility-why-its-so-hard-to-talk-to-white-people-about-racism-twlm/
Dr. Robin DiAngelo explains why white people implode when talking about race.
A Practice to Heal Prejudice: How loving-kindness meditation taps the roots of empathy, 2015, by Jason Drwal
http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/practice-heal-prejudice
The idea of racial reconciliation in America, 2015, by Adam Fisher
http://www.gazettenet.com/home/17484123-95/adam-fisher-the-idea-of-racial-reconciliation-in-america
I, Racist, 2015, by John Metta
https://thsppl.com/i-racist-538512462265#.y6kywax92
The Case for Reparations, 2014, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
A Biracial Woman’s Letter to her White Father, 2014, by The Little Warrior
https://thsppl.com/a-biracial-womans-letter-to-her-white-father-13d02a909318
The Passing of the Indians Behind Glass, 2014, by Francie Diep
http://theappendix.net/issues/2014/7/the-passing-of-the-indians-behind-glass?Src=longreads&mc_cid=81e4fbd0f2&mc_eid=5ff47bb9f1
The Prisoners Fighting California’s Wildfires, 2014, by Amanda Chicago Lewis
http://www.buzzfeed.com/amandachicagolewis/the-prisoners-fighting-californias-wildfires?utm_term=.umvw3116N#.bupa8LLV3
Why I Don’t Want to Talk About Race, 2011, by Steve Locke
https://goodmenproject.com/ethics-values/why-i-dont-want-to-talk-about-race/
Exploring White Resistance to Racial Reconciliation in the United States, 2002–2003, by Taunya Lovell Banks
http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1563&context=fac_pubs
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, 1990, by Peggy McIntosh
http://ted.coe.wayne.edu/ele3600/mcintosh.html
AUDIO
Still Processing Podcast
https://www.nytimes.com/podcasts/still-processing
Code Switch Podcast
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/
Eula Biss — Let’s Talk About Whiteness, Civil Conversations Project, On Being, 2018
http://www.civilconversationsproject.org/eula-biss-lets-talk-about-whiteness-sep2018
How Should Boston Reckon with the Complicated History of Faneuil Hall?, 2018
http://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2018/07/19/faneuil-hall-memorial-name
Historian Says Don’t ‘Sanitize’ How Our Government Created The Ghettos, 2015
http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2015/05/14/406699263/fresh-air-for-may-14-2015
How Slavery Shaped America’s Oldest And Most Elite Colleges, 2013
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/17/223420533/how-slavery-shaped-americas-oldest-and-most-elite-colleges
The Untold History of Post-Civil War ‘Neo-Slavery’ (NPR, 2008, 30:28)
Free, streaming online.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89051115
VIDEO/FILM
BlacKKKlansman, (2018)
Spike Lee and Jordan Peele
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7349662/
Equal Justice Institute Video Library
https://eji.org/videos
The Rachel Divide, (2018, 104 minutes)
Rachel Dolezal, her family, and her critics reckon with the aftermath of a national debate sparked by questions about her racial identity.
https://www.netflix.com/title/80149821
MIT and the Legacy of Slavery, (February 2018, 91 minutes)
https://livestream.com/accounts/2261474/events/8050215/videos/170340073?t=1518804754786
Challenging the Culture of Cruelty: Understanding and Defeating Race and Class Inequity in America (September 2017, 90 minutes)
Free, streaming online (begin video at 30:20), courtesy of Salem State University. Tim Wise, anti-racism activist, author and educator explains the history of systemic racial inequality in the United States (wealthy white elites manipulating non-wealthy whites to compete with their non-wealthy, non-white class peers); the destructive myth of the United States as a meritocracy; and the “psychological wage of whiteness” — white privilege is subsidized obliviousness to the experiences of people who are not white.
https://livestream.com/SalemStateUniversity/TimWise/videos/163401353
13th, by Ava DuVernay (Netflix, 2016, 100 minutes)
This documentary explores the “intersection of race, justice and mass incarceration in the United States;” it is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which freed the slaves and prohibited slavery (unless as punishment for a crime).
http://www.avaduvernay.com/13th/
View with Netflix subscription: https://www.netflix.com/title/80091741
FBI Director Comey discusses Race and Law Enforcement (Georgetown University, February 2015, 23 minutes)
“In a Feb. 12 speech at Georgetown University, FBI Director James B. Comey called on the nation’s law enforcement personnel and the citizens they serve to participate in a frank and open conversation about the disconnect that exists in places like New York City and Ferguson, Missouri — and communities across the country — between police agencies and many citizens, particularly in communities of color.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbx4HAm6Rc8
Verna Myers: How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them, (TEDx, 2014, 18 minutes)
Diversity advocate Verna Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a funny, impassioned, important talk, she shows us how.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYyvbgINZkQ
Author Anthony Greenwald on Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People (Seattle Town Hall, 2013, 59 minutes)
“University of Washington Professor of Psychology Anthony Greenwald exposes our hidden biases; questions the extent to which they shape our likes, dislikes, and judgments about people.”
http://www.seattlechannel.org/misc-video?videoid=x22212
Peggy McIntosh Interview on White Privilege, (2012, 29 minutes)
“White Privelege: ‘1. a. A right, advantage, or immunity granted to or enjoyed by white persons beyond the common advantage of all others; an exemption in many particular cases from certain burdens or liabilities. b. A special advantage or benefit of white persons; with reference to divine dispensations, natural advantages, gifts of fortune, genetic endowments, social relations, etc.’”
http://www.beyondwhiteness.com/2012/02/19/peggy-mcintosh-interview-on-white-privilege/
We Need to Talk about an Injustice, Bryan Stevenson (2012, 23 minutes)
In an engaging and personal talk — with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks — human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America’s justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country’s black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America’s unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.
http://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice?language=en
Dark Girls, Directors: Bill Duke, D. Channsin Berry, (2011)
This documentary explores the prejudices dark-skinned women face throughout the world. This NAACP Award-nominee documentary, explores the roots of classism, racism and the lack of self-esteem within a segment of cultures that span from America to the most remote corners of the globe. Women including, Academy Award Nominee Viola Davis, share their personal stories touching on deeply ingrained beliefs and attitudes of society towards dark-skinned women, while allowing generations to heal as they learn to love themselves for the beautiful women that they are.
https://urbanmoviechannel.com/film/dark-girls/
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (PBS, ca. 2009, 85 minutes)
Free, streaming online. Based on the book by Douglas A. Blackmon, narrated by Laurence Fishburne
“Slavery by Another Name ‘resets’ our national clock with a singular astonishing fact: Slavery in America didn’t end 150 years ago, with Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Based on Douglas A. Blackmon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, the film illuminates how in the years following the Civil War, insidious new forms of forced labor emerged in the American South, persisting until the onset of World War II.”
http://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/watch/
Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, (2008, 86 minutes) Directors: Katrina Brown, Alla Kovgan, Jude Ray; Producers: Elisabeth Delude-Dix, Juanita Brown.
“In the feature documentary Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North, filmmaker Katrina Browne discovers that her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. She and nine cousins retrace the Triangle Trade and gain powerful new perspectives on the black/white divide.”
http://www.tracesofthetrade.org/view-clips/
Slavery to Mass Incarceration, (2015, 6 minutes)
“an animated short film by acclaimed artist Molly Crabapple, with narration by Bryan Stevenson. The film illustrates facts about American slavery and the elaborate mythology of racial difference that was created to sustain it. Because that mythology persists today, slavery did not end in 1865, it evolved. Its legacy can be seen in the presumption of guilt and dangerousness assigned to African Americans, especially young men and boys, the racial profiling and mistreatment that presumption creates, and the racial dynamics of criminal justice practices and mass incarceration.”
http://www.eji.org/slaveryevolved
A Class Divided, (Frontline, 1985)
The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, a teacher in a small town in Iowa tried a daring classroom experiment. She decided to treat children with blue eyes as superior to children with brown eyes. FRONTLINE explores what those children learned about discrimination and how it still affects them today.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/class-divided/
Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball, (1999, 60 minutes)
“Edward Ball, recipient of the 1998 National Book Award, delivers the keynote speech at the annual meeting of the San Diego Historical Society. A descendent of plantation owners, Mr. Ball’s book Slaves in the Family is the result of extensive research into family archives and historical sources.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ja_nKi-Dhc
Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?
James Baldwin vs. William F. Buckley, Jr.
Historic Cambridge Union Debate, Cambridge University,(1965, 59 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFeoS41xe7w
I have a dream, Martin Luther King, Jr., (1963, 12 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_ZgSK9yIbk
“Who is the Nigger?” interview with James Baldwin
A clip from, “Take this Hammer”
In the 1960s (and again in the 1980s), American author James Baldwin described the “problem” of race in America as being not a “Negro Problem,” but a “White Problem.” A “film unit follows author and activist James Baldwin in the spring of 1963, as he’s driven around San Francisco to meet with members of the local African-American community. Baldwin reflects on the racial inequality that African-Americans are forced to confront.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0L5fciA6AU
Full version: https://diva.sfsu.edu/bundles/187041
The Doll Test used in Brown vs. Board of Education arguments
SYLLABI
The South in Black and White, Duke University, Durham Tech, NCCU, University of North Carolina
https://southinblackandwhite.wordpress.com/
Faith, Social Justice & Public Life
https://sojo.net/faith-social-justice-public-life
Charleston Syllabus
http://aaihs.org/resources/charlestonsyllabus/
A crowd-sourced reading list, in response to the June 2015 church shootings in Charleston, South Carolina. “#Charlestonsyllabus is more than a list. It is a community of people committed to critical thinking, truth telling and social transformation.”
TIMELINES
Racial Injustice Timeline, The Equal Justice Initiative
http://racialinjustice.eji.org/timeline/
The Racebox: The Census since 1790
http://racebox.org/
STATISTICS
Jail Incarceration Rate Trends
http://trends.vera.org/#/
The Next to Die
https://www.themarshallproject.org/next-to-die?ref=hp-4-122#.4kMgCtwYN
Death Penalty Information Center
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
The Guardian’s The Counted: People Killed by Police in the US
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database#
ORGANIZATIONS TAKING ACTION
Authentic Conversations About Race Project
http://www.authenticconversationsaboutrace.com/download-materials
“The Authentic Conversations About Race project… (helps)people to gain deeper understanding and connection through one-on-one intimate and personal cross-cultural conversations about race.”
Coming to the Table
http://comingtothetable.org/about-us/coming-table-3/
“Coming to the Table provides leadership, resources, and a supportive environment for all who wish to acknowledge and heal wounds from racism that is rooted in the United States’ history of slavery.”
Community Change Inc
http://www.communitychangeinc.org/
“Community Change was born out of the Civil Rights Movement and in response to the Kerner Commission which named racism as “a white problem.” CCI has done what few organizations are willing to do: shine a spotlight on the roots of racism in white culture with the intention of dealing with racism at its source, as well as with its impact on communities of color.”
Equal Justice Initiative
http://www.eji.org/
“The Equal Justice Initiative is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system. We litigate on behalf of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, people wrongly convicted or charged with violent crimes, poor people denied effective representation, and others whose trials are marked by racial bias or prosecutorial misconduct. EJI works with communities that have been marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment.”
The Marshall Project
http://www.themarshallproject.org
“A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization covering America’s criminal justice system.”
The Middle Project
http://www.middleproject.org/
“The Middle Project unites progressive leaders who are ready for a revolutionary and prophetic way of using power and resources to act locally and think globally to heal the human family. The Middle Project takes its strength and approach from the progressive faith traditions that have played a major role in America’s greatest democratic achievements: the abolition of slavery, civil rights, universal suffrage, and the anti-war movement.”
The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
http://www.pisab.org
“The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond focuses on understanding what racism is, where it comes from, how it functions, why it persists and how it can be undone. Our workshops utilize a systemic approach that emphasizes learning from history, developing leadership, maintaining accountability to communities, creating networks, undoing internalized racial oppression and understanding the role of organizational gate keeping as a mechanism for perpetuating racism.”
The SEED Project: Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity
http://nationalseedproject.org/
“SEED is a peer-led professional development program that creates conversational communities to drive personal, organizational, and societal change toward greater equity and diversity. We do this by training individuals to facilitate ongoing seminars within their own institutions and communities. SEED leaders design their seminars to include personal reflection and testimony, listening to others’ voices, and learning experientially and collectively. Through this methodology, SEED equips us to connect our lives to one another and to society at large by acknowledging systems of oppression, power, and privilege.”
Sojourners
https://sojo.net/about-us
“We envision a future in which Christians put their faith into action in the passionate pursuit of social justice, peace, and environmental stewardship, working in partnership with people of other perspectives, for the common good of communities, families and individuals. We articulate that vision, convene and mobilize constituencies, and build alliances for effective advocacy.”
Southern Poverty Law Center
http://www.splcenter.org
“Founded in 1971, is a non-profit organization that combats hate, intolerance and discrimination through education and litigation.”
Union of Minority Neighborhoods
http://unionofminorityneighborhoods.org/
“UMN is working to ensure our collective power as people of color is heard and felt. Our communities are too often on the receiving end of legislation, public policies, and discriminatory practices that directly and repeatedly limit access to economic opportunity and justice. Founded in 2002, UMN is committed to fully engaging communities of color as active participants in our democracy.”
Vera Institute of Justice
http://www.vera.org/
“Vera operates by partnering with foundations and with government officials and community organizations at the local, national, and international levels to help improve the systems people rely on for justice and safety. Our core services are conducting research and analysis, providing technical assistance, and creating demonstration projects.”
This list is a collaboration, started in 2013 by two U.S. citizens, one “black”, and one “white”, and added to by friends and family members of various races. The list is by no means comprehensive, and should be treated as just one starting point for anyone interested in digging deeper into the history of race relations in the United States, and in creating a more just society. Comments and suggestions are welcome. We will update as we are able. We also highly recommend the #CharlestonSyllabus as growing hub of information on the topics of the history of racism and the quest for justice and racial equality in the U.S. http://aaihs.org/resources/charlestonsyllabus/
