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As a trusted community partner, The Library’s primary aim is to help those seeking knowledge and understanding, while serving the needs of all members of the community. 

In that spirit, and with your help, we’re developing this list of resources for everyone seeking a better understanding of race relations. We hope to create a pipeline for dialogue and increased awareness that will allow us to move forward as a united society.

> > Looking for a more complete list of titles in our collection?

> > Help us by suggesting other titles to add to our collection on this topic.

> > Need help with your research? Ask a Librarian.

 

How can we do better? Let us know at dcls.org/strategicplan.

 

Adult Book Titles

All you can ever know: a memoir, by Nicole Chung

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Book of the Little Axe by Lauren Francis-Sharma

Don’t label me: an incredible conversation for divided times, by Irshad Manji

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

 

how to be an antiracist

How to be an antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi

It’s time to talk (and listen): how to have constructive conversations about race, class, sexuality, ability, & gender in a polarized world,
by Anatasia S. Kim, Ph. D. and Alicia Del Prado, Ph. D.

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad

So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo 

The persistence of the color line: racial politics and the Obama presidency, by Randall Kennedy

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

When They Call You a Terrorist: a Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele

What it is: race family and one thinking Black man’s blues, by Clifford Thompson

What truth sounds like: Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America, by Michael Eric Dkyson

“Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?” and other conversations about race, by Beverly Daniel Tatum

 

 


 

 

Antiracist Books for Tweens and Teens

 

Middle Grade

A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée

From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks

Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes

my life as an ice cream sandwich

My life as an ice cream sandwich, by Ibi Zobo

New Kid by Jerry Craft

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

Resist: 35 profiles of ordinary people who rose up against tyranny and injustice, by Veronica Chambers

So Done by Paula Chase

The Long Ride by Marina Budhos

The Usual Suspects by Maurice Broaddus

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia

 

Young Adult

All American boys, by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson

Black Girl Unlimited: The Remarkable Story of a Teenage Wizard by Echo Brown

Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. with Tonya Bolden

I’m Not Dying with You Tonight by Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal

Just Mercy: Adapted for Young Adults: a True Story of the Fight for Justice by Bryan Stevenson

March (Books 1-3) by John Lewis and illustrated by Nate Powell

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

Piecing me together, by Renée Watson

Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott

Slay by Brittney Morris

stamped

Stamped: racism, antiracism and you, by Jason Reynolds

Stolen Justice by Lawrence Goldstone

Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance by Bethany C. Morrow

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert

The Stonewall Riots by Gayle E. Pitman

This book is anti-racist, by Tiffany Jewell

You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson

 


 

Picture Books for Kids

 

Babies Through Preschool

 

A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara

Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky

Be Boy Buzz
Be boy buzz, by bell hooks

Black is a Rainbow Color by Angela Joy and illustrated by Ekua Holmes

Don’t Touch My Hair by Sharee Miller

Hair love, by Matthew Cherry

I Am Enough by Grace Byers and illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo

last stop market street

Last stop on Market Street, by Matt de la Peña

M Is for Melanin: A Celebration of the Black Child by Tiffany Rose

Saturday by Oge Mora

Skin Again, by bell hooks

Whose Knees Are These? by Jabari Asim and illustrated by LeUyen Pham

 

Elementary School

A Girl Like Me by Angela Johnson and illustrated by Nina Crews

Crown: an ode to the fresh cut, by Derrick Barnes

jabari jumps

Jabari jumps, by Gaia Cornwal

 

Let it shine: stories of Black women freedom fighters, by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison

Little Legends: Exceptional Men in Black History by Vashti Harrison

malcolm little

Malcolm Little: the boy who grew up to become Malcolm X, by Ilyasah Shabazz

Not my idea: a book about whiteness, by Anastasia Higginbotham 

Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh

Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney and illustrated by Brian Pinkney

Something Happened in Our Town: a Child’s Story about Racial Injustice by Marianne Celano, PhD, ABPP, Marietta Collins, PhD, and Ann Hazzard, PhD, ABPP, and illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin

Sulwe by Lupita Nyong’o and illustrated by Vashti Harrison

 

 

the day you begin

The day you begin, by Jacqueline Woodson

The undefeated, by Kwame Alexander

 

The youngest marcher, by Cynthia Levinson

Under My Hijab

Under my hijab, by Hena Khan

What Do You Do with a Voice Like That?: The Story of Extraordinary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan by Chris Barton and illustrated by Ekua Holmes

 

> > Looking for a more complete list of titles in our collection?

> > Help us by suggesting other titles to add to our collection on this topic.

> > Need help with your research? Ask a Librarian.

 

How can we do better? Let us know at dcls.org/strategicplan