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Resources on Race and Racism

Black Lives Matter

Local Organizations

  • The One Human Race Initiative is a ministry of the Union of Black Episcopalians, Myra McDaniel Chapter that creates a safe, open, and productive environment for everyone to learn and share about race.
  • Austin Justice Coalition is a Racial Justice Group that educates and builds community power for people of color who live in Austin, Texas that need support, community, and liberation during a time of systemic injustice in America.
  • Black Pearl Books an Independent Bookstore in the Austin, TX Hill Country

Talking about race and racism: resources for families

Not sure how to have the conversation? Need some additional support for conversations that your family is having? Here is a list of resources to help you and your family as you have hard conversations with your children and teens. (If you order books on Amazon Smile, please be sure to select our non-profit organization Welcome Table, Inc as your charity.)

Parenting Resources

The Talk

How to talk to your children about racism

Books 

    • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    • Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools Hardcover by Monique W. Morris
    • Sing a Rhythm, Dance a Blues: Education for the Liberation of Black and Brown Girls by Monique W Morris
    • Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey
    • Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? By Beverly Daniel Tatum 
    • Different and Wonderful: Raising Black Children in a Race-Conscious Society by Dr. Darlene Hopson and Derek S. Hopson
    • Raising Black Children: Two Leading Psychiatrists Confront the Educational, Social and Emotional Problems Facing Black Children by James P. Comer and Alvin F. Poussaint

Teaching and Learning Resources

For Young Children and older

  • The Colors of Us by Karen Katz
  • Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles (Note: the inspiration for CDF Freedom Schools was/is Freedom Summer, aka the Mississippi Summer Project, a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi.)
  • Goin’ Someplace Special by Patricia McKissack, illustrated by Jerry Pickney
  • A Kids Book about Racism by Jelani Memory (nonfiction)
  • A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story by Sharon Langley and Amy Nathan
  • The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson
  • Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children by Sandra Pinkney and Myles Pinkney
  • The Sneetches by Dr Seuss
  • Twenty-Eight Days: Moments in Black That History Changed the World by Charles R. Smith

For Upper Elementary School Age Children and older

  • Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (nonfiction)
  • Can I Touch Your Hair?: Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship by Irene Latham & Charles Waters (nonfiction)
  • Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
  • The Gold Cadillac by Mildred D. Taylor
  • Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness (Ordinary Terrible Things) by Anastasia Higginbotham
  • One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • This Promise of Change: One Girl’s Story for School Equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce & Debbie Levy (nonfiction)

For Middle School Age Youth and older

  • All American Boys by Jason Reynolds
  • Getting Away With Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case by Chris Crowe (nonfiction)
  • Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
  • The Road to Paris by Nikki Grimes
  • This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work by Tiffany Jewell (nonfiction)
  • Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: the Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford (nonfiction)
  • You Don’t Even Know Me: Stories and Poems About Boys by Sharon G. Flake

For High School Teens and adults

  • The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
  • I Am Alphonso Jones by Tony Medina
  • I’m Not Dying With You Tonight by by Gilly Segal and Kimberly Jones
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  • How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon
  • Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (nonfiction)
  • Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
  • Monster by Walter Dean Myers
  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (nonfiction)
  • Roots by Alex Haley
  • Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-Winning Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolda (non-fiction)
  • Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles
  • Unpacking the Invisible White Knapsack essay by Peggy McIntosh (nonfiction)

For Adults

Faith Based Resources

  • America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America by Jim Wallis
  • Homework for White Christians
  • I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
  • Living into God’s Dream: Dismantling Racism in America edited by Catherine Meeks
  • The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone
  • Story of Rhythm and Grace, A: What the Church Can Learn from Rock and Roll about Healing the Racial Divide by Jimi Calhoun
  • The Episcopal Church (Topic links)
  • What’s Faith Got to Do with It?: Black Bodies/Christian Souls by Kelly Brown Douglas

Books

  • The Color of Water by James McBride
  • How to Be an Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
  • Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen
  • Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy who Discovered He was Black

by Gregory H. Williams

  • Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
  • A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
  • Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
  • Understanding and Dismantling Racism by Joseph Barndt
  • What If I Say the Wrong Thing: 25 Habits for Culturally Effective People by Verna A. Myers
  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo

Articles and Websites

Want more resources?

Lists and News Outlets

Online Book and News Outlets