Racial Equity Resources
Eyes on the Prize DVD
PBS American Experience
1986
This is the definitive multi-part documentary on the civil rights movement. Across multiple discs the episodes include:
Awakenings (1954-1956) : Covers two events that helped to focus the nation's attention on the rights of black Americans: the 1955 lynching in Mississippi of 14-year-old Emmett Till and the 1955-56 Montgomery, Ala. boycott. Also shows southern race relations at mid-century and witnesses the awakening of individuals to their own courage and power.
The Day Sonny Died
by M. Simone Boyd and Onnie I Kirk, Jr.
2017
When Constance Jackson's son dies a brutal death she's left to raise her grandson, Sonny, and try to keep him from a fate that has befallen generations of Jackson men before him.
4 Little Girls
Spike Lee, director
2000
When a bomb tore through the basement of a black Baptist church on September 15th, 1963, it took the lives of four young girls: Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins. This racially motivated crime took place at a time when the civil rights movement was burning with a new flame, and as such it fueled a nation's outrage and brought Birmingham, Alabama to the forefront of America's conciousness.
Recommended by Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership Development (Justified Anger)
5 Tips for Being an Ally
by Francesca Ramsey aka Chescaleigh
In this 3 1/2 minute video, Ramsey -- comedian, blogger and creator of MTV Decoded -- defines an ally is 'a person who wants to fight for equality for a marginalized group they're not a part of.' She defines privilege, encourages listening, learning and speaking up.
10 Simple Ways White People Can Step Up to Fight Everyday Racism
Derrick Clifton
Mic.com
September, 2014
10 Ways Well-Meaning White Teachers Bring Racism Into Our Schools
Jamie Utt
August, 2015
Recommended by Nehemiah Center for Urban Leadership from their Racial Equity Mobilizer
10 Ways Your Social Justice Work Might Be Inaccessible and Elitist (And Why That’s a Problem)
Hari Ziyad
The Body Is Not An Apology
2019
The site thebodyisnotanapology.com has many other other articles on race.
12 Years a Slave
Steven McQueen, John Ridley
2013
12 Years a Slave is a feature film adaptation of Solomon Northup's slave narrative of the same name. Widely lauded by film critics and viewers around the globe, the film won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Northrup was born free and living in New York state when he travelled to the Washington D.C. area for a short term job. There he is kidnapped and shipped south where he is sold - twice. After 12 years in slavery, he is finally identified as a free man by someone he once knew and returns to his family.
13th
DuVernay, Ava
2016
An information-packed film about race, our broken justice system and the effects of mass incarceration. DuVernay's film is based heavily on Michelle Alexander's book “The New Jim Crow." Both demonstrate that our criminal justice system is an extension of slavery and Jim Crow laws and as such are a racialized system of control. Usually only available with a Netflix subscription, in April 2020 Netflix put the full film on YouTube for free as an aid to educators. Unfortunately, this film has never been available to buy on DVD or Blu-ray (which is why the library does not own it.)
21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge
Eddie Moore, Jr.
Debbie Irving
28 Days: Moments in Black History that Changed the World
by Charles R Smith JR
illustrated by Shane W. Evans
2015
A picture book look at many of the men and women who revolutionized life for African Americans throughout history.
28 Days: Moments in Black history that changeld the world
by Charles R. Smith Jr.
illustrated by Shane Evans
2015
With powerful illustrations by Shane Evans, this is a completely unique look at the importance and influence of African Americans on the history of this country.
The 57 Bus
by Dashka Slater
2017
If it weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes.
1619 Project
New York Times
2019
In 1619, the first ship carrying enslaved Africans arrived in Viriginia. Four hundred years later, the New York Times examines the repercussions of that moment.
Recommended by the YWCA as part of their Racial Justice Learning Resources
About Race
Baratunde Thurston, Raquel Cepeda and Tanner Colby
"Authors Baratunde Thurston (How To Be Black), Raquel Cepeda (Bird Of Paradise: How I Became Latina) and Tanner Colby (Some Of My Best Friends Are Black) host a lively multiracial, interracial conversation about the ways we can’t talk, don’t talk, would rather not talk, but intermittently, fitfully, embarrassingly do talk about culture, identity, politics, power, and privilege in our pre-post-yet-still-very-racial America."
ABOUT THIS PAGE
Longtime Madisonian Lilada Gee's newest initiative, Defending Black Girlhood, focuses on the work that Black women and other adults need to do in order for Black girls to be safe in their homes, schools and communities. Madison Public Library is proud to partner with Defending Black Girlhood to recommend the following resources for parents, educators and would-be allies.
Abuelita's secret
by Alma Flor Ada
Illustrated by Jacobo Muñiz
2019
A boy dreads the first day of school with a new class. He feels he has nothing special to share with his class. Then his grandmother whispers a secret in his ear -when it's his turn to talk, all he needs to do is open his backpack. What has Abuelita hidden away for him?
Accomplices Not Allies: Abolishing the Ally Industrial Complex
Indigenous Action Media
May, 2014
Afrfican American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song
edited by Kevin Young
2020
Taking the measure of the tradition in a single indispensable volume, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song sets a new standard for a genuinely deep engagement with Black poetry and its essential expression of American genius.
An African American and Latinx History of the United States
by Paul Ortiz
[2018]
Incisive and timely, this bottom-up history, told from the interconnected vantage points of Latinx and African Americas, reveals the radically different ways that people of the diaspora have addressed issues still plaguing the United States today, and it offers a way forward in the continued struggle for universal civil rights
African American Literature Book Club
1997-present
"AALBC.com is the oldest, largest, and most frequently visited web site dedicated to books by, or about, people of African descent. Started in 1997, AALBC.com is a widely recognized source of information about Black authors."
The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
2014
Explore with Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. the evolution of the African-American people, as well as the multiplicity of cultural institutions, political strategies and religious and social perspectives they developed.
Recommended by MOSES Madison
After the Storm
Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission
During the 1980s and early 1990s, thousands of angry citizens of Wisconsin descended upon northern Wisconsin boat landings to protest Ojibwe Indian treaty rights- specifically spearfishing for walleye pike. In this DVD produced in 2010, both a short history of that 'perfect storm' of economic, environmental and cultural factors that were in play at the time, and explores what has changed since.