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As protests continue in the US and around the world, we have pulled together a reading list of books, blogs, and articles to educate ourselves and amplify the voices of those most marginalised. We’ve also included links to black-owned bookshops and online libraries to support. This is a working directory – please feel free to reach out with further suggestions.
Books
Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness – Michelle Alexander
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
Raising Our Hands – Jenna Arnold
The Fire Next Time – James Baldwin
Fire Shut Up in My Bones – Charles M. Blow
The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century – Grace Lee Boggs
I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness – Austin Channing Brown
Kindred – Octavia Butler
Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
Black Feminist Thought – Patricia Hill Collins
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower – Dr. Brittney Cooper
When They Call You a Terrorist – Patrisse Cullors
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism – Robin DiAngelo
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race – Reni Eddo-Lodge
Well-Read Black Girl: Finding our Stories, Discovering Ourselves – Glory Edim
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
Girl, Woman, Other – Bernadine Evaristo
Staying Power – Peter Fryer
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body – Roxanne Gay
There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack – Paul Gilroy
Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices – Stuart Hall
The Fateful Triangle: Race, Ethnicity, Nation – Stuart Hall
Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order – Stuart Hall, Brian Roberts, John Clarke
The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study – Stefano Harney & Fred Moten
Brit(ish) – Afua Hirsch
All About Love: New Visions – bell hooks
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
How To Be An Antiracist – Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
Heavy: An American Memoir – Kiese Laymon
Your Silence Will Not Protect You – Audre Lorde
Sister Outsider – Audre Lorde
They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement – Wesley Lowery
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color – Cherríe Moraga
The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream – Barack Obama
Becoming – Michelle Obama
So You Want to Talk About Race – Ijeoma Oluo
Road Map for Revolutionaries – Elisa Camahort Page, Carolyn Gerin and Jamia Wilson
Citizen – Claudia Rankine
You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain – Phoebe Robinson
Me and White Supremacy – Layla F Saad
The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America – Nikesh Shukla
Don’t Call Us Dead – Danez Smith
White Teeth – Zadie Smith
The End of Policing – Alex S. Vitale
Autobiography of Malcom X – Malcom X and Alex Haley
Black run bookshops
Online Libraries & Newsletters
INIVA – Stuart Hall Library offers free membership for all
Free Library of Philadelphia
The Unmistakables newsletter
Black History Month Library
Reports
Black Lives Matter 4-year Anniversary Report
Articles and essays
“What does black British activism look like in 2020?” – Oluwaseun Matiluko
“America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us” – Adam Serwer
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement (Mentoring a New Generation of Activists)
”My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” – Jose Antonio Vargas
The 1619 Project (all articles) – The New York Times Magazine
The Combahee River Collective Statement
“The Intersectionality Wars” – Jane Coaston
“Where do I donate? Why is the uprising violent? Should I go protest?” – Courtney Martin
”White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” – Peggy McIntosh
“Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?” – Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
“Digital Resources for a Movement Against Police Violence” – Rhizome
“Change is in the air” – Chanté Joseph, Refinery29
Resources for Parents & Kids
Coretta Scott King Book Award Winners: books for children and young adults
Embrace Race! – Guide to creating an anti-bias children’s book collection
Books to help kids understand racism
PBS – teaching your child about Black History
Book Trust – getting children reading
A Parent’s Guide to Black Lives Matter
