Resources
Recommended Books and Documentaries
.png)
13th Netflix Documentary by Ava DuVernay. A Netflix Documentary that examines the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom.

Be the Bridge by LaTasha Morrison. Morrison presents an understanding of historical factors and present realities to facilitate a dialogue and to serve as a catalyst for righteousness, justice, healing, transformation, and reconciliation.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. In a letter to his son, Coates shares the experiences that led to his understanding of racism and how it weaves his personal, historical, and intellectual development into his ruminations on how to live in a black body in America.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems and how they shape American society.

How to be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. Dr. Kendi argues that one cannot simply be neutral, “colorblind,” or not racist. We must take active steps to become Antiracists. Each chapter focuses on a different element of racism and weaves in stories, chronologically, from Kendi’s childhood to the present.

Just Mercy – Book and Movie by Bryan Stevenson. Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a notorious murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case transformed Stevenson’s understanding of mercy and justice forever.

Resist – 40 Profiles of Ordinary People – Veronica Chambers. You may only be one person, but you have the power to change the world. From Frederick Douglass to Malala Yousafzai, Joan of Arc to John Lewis, Susan B. Anthony to Janet Mock—these remarkable figures show us what it means to take a stand and say no to injustice, even when it would be far easier to stay quiet. Resist profiles men and women who resisted tyranny, fought the odds, and stood up to bullies that threatened to harm their communities. Along with their portraits and most memorable quotes, their stories will inspire you to speak out and rise up—every single day.

Separate Is Never Equal – Duncan Tonatiuh. This picture book explores W how a young Sylvia Mendez was excited about enrolling in her neighborhood school. But she and her brothers were turned away and told they had to attend the Mexican school instead. Sylvia could not understand why—she was an American citizen who spoke perfect English. Why were the children of Mexican families forced to attend a separate school? Unable to get a satisfactory answer from the school board, the Mendez family decided to take matters into its own hands and organize a lawsuit. In the end, the Mendez family’s efforts helped bring an end to segregated schooling in California in 1947, seven years before the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ended segregation in schools across America.

So You Want to Talk About Race – Ijeoma Oluo. Oluo guides readers through subjects ranging from police brutality and cultural appropriation to the model minority myth in an attempt to have honest conversations about race, and about how racism infects every aspect of American life.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment.

Stamped – Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendii. Stamped reveals the history of racist ideas in America and shows how it permeates all aspects of society. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited. The authors shine a light on the many insidious forms of racist ideas--and on ways readers can identify and stamp out racist thoughts in their daily lives.

The Central Park Five by Sarah Burns (also a Ken Burns/PBS documentary)
In 1989, a jogger in Central Park was discovered in a ravine, having been beaten and raped. Five black and Latino teenagers were apprehended, all five confessing to the crime. Public outcry and intense media coverage exposed deep-seated race and class divisions. The minors were tried and convicted as adults despite no evidence linking them to the victim. Over a decade later, when DNA tests connected serial rapist Matias Reyes to the crime, the government, law enforcement, social institutions and media of New York were exposed as having undermined the individuals they were designed to protect.

The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby. A historical, sociological, and religious review from America's early colonial days through slavery and the Civil War that covers the tragedy of Jim Crow laws, the victories of the Civil Rights era, and the strides of today's Black Lives Matter movement. The book discusses the cultural and institutional obstacles that need to be overcome to achieve meaningful integration and outlines actions we can take to move forward.

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas. Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. Alexander makes the case that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." So ending 250 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, it inspired the creation of The Marshall Project, informed the advocacy of Black Lives Matter and shaped the efforts of criminal justice reform.
The Uncomfortable Truth Amazon Prime Documentary - The son of Civil Rights Hero Joan Trumpauer Mulholland dives into the 400 year history of institutional racism in America and is confronted with the shocking reality that his family helped start it all from the very beginning. An exploration of the origins and history of racism in America.

The Youngest Marcher by Cynthia Levinson. In this picture book, children meet the youngest known child to be arrested for a civil rights protest in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963. When nine-year-old Audrey Faye Hendricks heard grown-ups talk about wiping out Birmingham’s segregation laws, she spoke up. As she listened to the preacher’s words, smooth as glass, she sat up tall. And when she heard the plan—picket those white stores! March to protest those unfair laws! Fill the jails!—she stepped right up and said, I’ll do it! She was going to j-a-a-il! Audrey Faye Hendricks was confident and bold and brave as can be, and hers is the remarkable and inspiring story of one child’s role in the Civil Rights Movement.

Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall. Hall reconstructs the likely pasts of women rebels who fought for freedom during the Middle Passage, as well as the stories of women who led slave revolts in Colonial New York. She also shares how her own legacy of slavery shapes her life, both during her time as a successful attorney and later as a historian seeking the past that haunts her.

Waking Up White and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving. Waking Up White is a memoir in which Irving recounts her experience learning about racism in adulthood and provides advice for (white) readers who wish to learn more about this subject as well.

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo. DiAngelo, a former professor at Westfield State University, examines how white people react to discussions of race, racism, and ongoing white supremacy. She argues that several factors keep white people unaware of their complicity in racism and that white reaction to racial triggers is one of the largest barriers to an anti-racist future.

Why are All of the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race
by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D. Tatum is a renowned authority on the psychology of racism who argues that straight talk about our racial identities is essential if we are serious about communicating across racial and ethnic divides and pursuing antiracism.

White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise. Using stories from his own life, Tim Wise examines what it really means to be white in a nation created to benefit people who are “white like him.” This inherent racism is not only real, but disproportionately burdens people of color and makes progressive social change less likely to occur. Explaining in clear and convincing language why it is in everyone’s best interest to fight racial inequality, Wise offers ways in which white people can challenge these unjust privileges, resist white supremacy and racism, and ultimately help to ensure the country’s personal and collective well-being.
Additional Resources
-
White Anti-Racist Culture Building at https://www.awarela.org/toolkit
-
SURJ National organization with local chapters https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/
-
Center for the Study of White American Culture, Inc. at www.euroamerican.org
-
Rebecca Wong’s https://connectfulness.com/podcast
-
The On Being Project https://onbeing.org/libraries/
-
TED Talk – How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them
-
About Juneteenth - National Museum of African-American History and Culture
-
Reconstruction: America After the Civil War – presented by PBS and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
https://www.pbs.org/weta/reconstruction/ -
Making Black America – presented by PBS and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
https://www.pbs.org/weta/making-black-america/ -
Netflix movies celebrating Black History
https://www.netflixcom/browse/genre/81244298
Housing/Land Use
-
DesegregateCT – sign up for the mailing list, so to take advantage of the resources and events, as well as the curated selection of news from around the country on land use issues.
-
A link to our funding opportunity in case this would allow you to meaningfully resource and move your work forward: https://www.hfpg.org/application/files/7916/1004/1239/Request_for_Proposals_2021_Community_Education_on_Housing_Segregation.pdf
-
Sustainable CT guide to affordable housing planning for municipalities with lots of links and resources. https://sustainablect.org/fileadmin/Random_PDF_Files/Archived_Actions/2018_Actions/Action_8.2.pdf
-
The resource above links to many organizations that can be helpful as you do this work. In addition at some point once you have a plan and enabling zoning you may want to reach out to LISC about their Housing Connections program, which is more centered on implementation: https://www.lisc.org/connecticut-statewide/what-we-offer/capacity-building/housing-connections/
Health Disparity
-
UCONN: Health Disparities Institute. 018 CT Report Card on Health Equity Among Boys and Men of Color https://health.uconn.edu/health-disparities/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2019/01/uconnhdi_CTBMOCReportCard.pdf.
-
Health Equity Solutions http://hesct.org/.
Education
Religion/Spirituality
-
https://www.prri.org/about/ Public Religion Research Institute.
-
https://cac.org/the-disorder-of-dismantling-racism-2020-08-18/#:~:text=The%20Disorder%20of%20Dismantling%20Racism%20Tuesday%2C%20August%2018%2C,even%20cultures%20experience%20times%20of%20disorder%20and%20disruption. – Short reflection worth the read from the Center for Action and Contemplation.
-
White Savior: Racism in the American Church - Sparkhouse presents a documentary film based on interviews and current research exploring the historic relationship between racism and American Christianity, the ongoing segregation of the church in the US, and the complexities of racial reconciliation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1GoL7v_oUk
Some Issues are Not Left Versus Right, But Right Versus Wrong
-
Equal Justice Initiative - Committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society. Site is a resource for numerous articles on the history of slavery, lynching, poverty, prison injustice and the need for reforms.
-
Repairers of the Breach - Advocates that the moral public concerns of our faith traditions are how our society treats the poor, women, LGBTQ people, children, workers, immigrants, communities of color, and the sick--the people whom Jesus calls “the least of these.” Works nationally to advance a moral agenda that uplifts our deepest constitutional and moral values of love, justice, and mercy
-
The Marshall Project - A nonprofit, online journalism organization focusing on issues related to criminal justice in the United States.
Decentering Whiteness
-
The Center for the Study of White American Culture (CSWAC) – http://www.euroamerican.org/Services/Org-services.asp
-
https://www.educationforracialequity.com/webinars-special-events