West End United Methodist Church


Our Racial History

Stamped from the Beginning – Ibram X Kendi

Why We Can’t Wait – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Walking Against the Wind – John Lewis


Racial Reconciliation for Beginners

The Color of Compromise – Jemar Tisby

Be the Bridge – Latasha Morrison

How to be an Anti-Racist – Ibram X Kendi

I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness – Austin Channing Brown

Jesus and the Disinherited – Howard Thurman

Why Are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria – Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum

I’m Black, I’m Christian, I’m Methodist – ed. by Rudy Rasmus

But I Don’t See You as Asian: Curating Conversations about Race – Bruce Reyes-Chow


Policy History

The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein

Just Mercy – Bryan Stevenson

The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander


Mass Incarceration

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

Hard Time: Understanding and Reforming the Prison – Robert Johnson

Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time – James Kilgore

Slouching Toward Tyranny: Mass Incarceration, Death Sentences and Racism Rev. Joseph B. Ingle

The Inferno: A Southern Morality Tale – Rev. Joseph B. Ingle

Last Rights: Thirteen Fatal Encounters with the State’s Justice – Rev. Joseph B. Ingle

The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions – Sister Helen Prejean

Dead Man Walking – Sister Helen Prejean

Beyond Prisons: A New Interfaith Paradigm for Our Failed Prison System – Laura Magnani and Harmon L. Wray


First-Person Accounts

Locked Up: Letters and Papers of a Prisoner of Conscience – Don Beisswenger

Life on the Outside: The Prison Odyssey of Elaine Bartlett – Jennifer Gonnerman

Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women – Susan Burton and Cari Lynn

Facing the U.S. Prison Problem 2.3 Million Strong: An Ex-Con’s View of the Mistakes and the Solutions – Shawn R. Griffith

Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison – Shaka Senghor

So I Can Live: Visons of Life from Death Row – W. S. Lyon, editor

Secrets from a Prison Cell: A Convict’s Eyewitness Accounts of the Dehumanizing Drama of Life Behind Bars – Tony Vick with Michael T. McRay

I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in Letters – Bayard Rustin


Deep Studies

The Cross and the Lynching Tree – James Cone

A Black Theology of Liberation – James Cone

Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength – Dr. Chanequa Walker- Barnes

I Bring the Voices of My People – Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes

Prophetic Lament – Dr. Soong-Chan Rah

Decolonizing Christianity: Becoming Badass Believers – Miguel De La Torre


Films (Documentaries and Narrative Film)

When They See Us

Just Mercy

13TH

Selma 

Rustin (premieres November 17, 2023 on Netflix)



Anti-Racism Resources for Youth Non-Fiction

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-Winning Stamped from the Beginning – Jason Reynolds & Ibram X Kendi

Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States – edited by Joe Macaré, Maya Schenwar, and Alana Yu-lan Price

Just Mercy (Adapted for Young Adults): A True Story of the Fight for Justice – Brian Stevenson

How It Went Down – Kekla Magoon

Dear Martin – Nic Stone (9th grade up)

The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas (8th grade up)

I Am Alfonso Jones – Tony Medina (9th grade up, graphic novel)


Films

When They See Us

The Hate U Give

Just Mercy

13TH

Selma

See You Yesterday

Rustin (premieres November 17, 2023 on Netflix)


Additional Resources

Smithsonian “Talking About Race” Online Portal  

Teen Vogue’s articles on racism and activism

Race Talk: Engaging Young People in Conversations about Race and Racism