Below are resources for broadening and refining your knowledge of the difficult subject of race compiled by our EPU team, including films, podcasts, books, and articles. We hope these resources will inspire you to join EPU in the fight to build a more connected, fair, and prosperous South for everyone.
Historical Texts & Documents
Books & Essays
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, PhD
How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change by Marian Wright Edelman
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong by James W. Loewen
Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen
Teaching What Really Happened by James W. Loewen
America’s Original Sin by Jim Wallis
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehesi Coates
The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward
Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson
Stamped From The Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
Slavery and Social Death by Orlando Patterson
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
So You Want to Talk About Race – Ijeoma Oluo
Chokehold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler
A Letter to My Nephew by James Baldwin
Policing The Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter by Jordan T. Camp & Christina Heatherton
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehesi Coates
The Black battalion that rescued Tony Blinken’s stepfather by Steven A. Holmes
Let us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Called to Reconciliation by Jonathan C. Augustine
Before the Streetlights Come On by Heather McTeer Toney
Undivided: The Power of Community in a Polarized World by Hahrie Han
Faith, Race, and the Lost Cause by Christopher Alan Graham
The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison
We Need to Build by Eboo Patel
The Power of Bridging: How to Build a World Where We All Belong by john a. powell
Belonging Without Othering: How We Save Ourselves and the World by john a. powell and Stephen Menendian
SEEK: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World by Scott Shigeoka
High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out (+ Discussion Guide) by Amanda Ripley
I never thought about it that way by Monica Guzman
Podcasts
NPR Podcast: “Not so Black and White: A Community’s Divided History“
Robert Putnam on The New York Times podcast, THE INTERVIEW
Hidden Brain: “Out of the Rabbit Hole”
Documentaries, Films or TV Series
Purple (+ Discussion Guide) by Resetting the Table
Belonging Without Othering: The Story of Our Future, john a. powell talks at Bioneers
Articles
A small town Georgia preacher fills pews by leaving no one out by Alison Miller
Generations After Slavery, Georgia Neighbors Find Freedom and Repair in Christ by Melissa Morgan Kelley
The Belonging Barometer: The State of Belonging in the US by Nichole Argo & Hammad Sheikh (produced by Over Zero & the American Immigration Council)
The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehesi Coates
Decades of systemic racism seen as root of Jackson Mississippi water crisis by Drew Costley and Emily Wagster Pettus
- Race, class and gender shape how we see age and childhood By Bill Bush, Erin Mysogland
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Actions to Take and Other Resources
Become a bridger, able to facilitate challenging conversations in your family, workplace, or local community. Check out the facilitator training opportunities offered by Essential Partners (scholarships available).
Princeton’s Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI) has created a state-by-state directory of local and national trainings to help communities, local leaders, election officials, poll workers, and individuals take concrete steps to prepare for elections, public meetings, and demonstrations, especially when there is a heightened risk of political violence. Find out which trainings are available in your state.