LibGuides: Africana Studies: Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter Resources

Welcome to the Black Lives Matter research guide. Here you will find suggested materials related to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Suggested Journal Articles

Baker, D. G. (2019). Noticing our norms so we can change them. Religious Education, 114(3), 342–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/00344087.2019.1610587
Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
DiAngelo, R. (2016). White Fragility. Counterpoints, 497, 245-253. https://doi.org/10.2307/45157307
Gordon, M. (2008). “Somewhat like war”: The aesthetics of segregation, black liberation, and a raisin in the sun. African American Review, 42(1), 121-133.
Gusa, D. L. (2010). White Institutional Presence: The Impact of Whiteness on Campus Climate. Harvard Educational Review, 80(4), 464-489.
Keum, B. T., & Miller, M. J. (2018). Racism on the internet: Conceptualization and recommendations for research. Psychology Of Violence, 8(6), 782–791. https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000201
Lorde, A. (1981). The uses of anger. Women’s Studies Quarterly, 9(3), 7–10.
McNamee, D. B. (2019). “Black Lives Matter” as a claim of fundamental law. UMass Law Review, 14(1), 2-70
Ray, R. (2020). Setting the record straight on the Movement for Black Lives. Ethnic & Racial Studies, 43(8), 1393–1401. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1718727
Ruth, M. (2020). Black Lives Matter. Salem Press Encyclopedia. Research Starter

Further Research

To find more articles on this topic, use the Advanced Search feature on the Library home page using these keywords:

Anti-racism or antiracism
Black Lives Matter
Civil rights
Race relations
Racial profiling
Racism
Police brutality
Police-community relations

Subject Specific Databases

African American Historical Serials Collection This link opens in a new window
African American Music Reference This link opens in a new window
America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
American Civil War: Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window

Below you will find links to catalog records for books and eBooks. Please note that the permissions for each eBook varies. Some have unlimited access while others can only be viewed by one person at a time. If an eBook is unavailable, check back at a later time.

Nonfiction

America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America [eBook] In America's Original Sin, Wallis offers a prophetic and deeply personal call to action in overcoming the racism so ingrained in American society. He speaks candidly to Christians--particularly white Christians--urging them to cross a new bridge toward racial justice and healing.
Between the World and Me [eBook] Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Black Lives Matter [eBook] What started as a hashtag in 2013 quickly grew into the Black Lives Matter movement. Black Lives Matter examines the police shootings that fueled the movement, the events that led up to racial tensions in the United States, and the goals the movement has set for the future. Easy-to-read text, vivid images, and helpful back matter give readers a clear look at this subject.
A Black Women's History of the United States [eBook] Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross offer an examination and celebration of Black womanhood, beginning with the first African women who arrived in what became the United States to African American women of today.A Black Women's History of the United States reaches far beyond a single narrative to showcase Black women's lives in all their fraught complexities. Berry and Gross prioritize many voices: enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law. The result is a starting point for exploring Black women's history and a testament to the beauty, richness, rhythm, tragedy, heartbreak, rage, and enduring love that abounds in the spirit of Black women in communities throughout the nation.
Blindspot : Hidden Biases of Good People [eBook] In this accessible and groundbreaking look at the science of prejudice, Banaji and Greenwald show that prejudice and unconscious biases toward others are a fundamental part of the human psyche.
The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America [eBook] Chronicling the emergence of deeply embedded notions of black people as a dangerous race of criminals by explicit contrast to working-class whites and European immigrants, this fascinating book reveals the influence such ideas have had on urban development and social policies.
Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century [eBook] An incisive, groundbreaking book that examines how a biological concept of race is a myth that promotes inequality in a supposedly “post-racial” era.
The Fire Next Time [eBook] A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation, gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement—and still lights the way to understanding race in America today.
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race [eBook] In this bestselling, widely lauded collection, Jesmyn Ward gathers our most original thinkers and writers to speak on contemporary racism and race, including Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Edwidge Danticat, Kevin Young, Claudia Rankine, and Honoree Jeffers. Envisioned as a response to The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin’s groundbreaking 1963 essay collection, these contemporary writers reflect on the past, present, and future of race in America.
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation [eBook] In this stirring and insightful analysis, activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor surveys the historical and contemporary ravages of racism and persistence of structural inequality such as mass incarceration and Black unemployment. In this context, she argues that this new struggle against police violence holds the potential to reignite a broader push for Black liberation.
Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? [eBook] In Have Black Lives Ever Mattered?, Mumia gives voice to the many people of color who have fallen to police bullets or racist abuse, and offers the post-Ferguson generation advice on how to address police abuse in the United States.
How to Be an Antiracist [eBook] In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism.
I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness [eBook] In a time when nearly every institution (schools, churches, universities, businesses) claims to value diversity in its mission statement, Austin writes in breathtaking detail about her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice. Her stories bear witness to the complexity of America’s social fabric—from Black Cleveland neighborhoods to private schools in the middle-class suburbs, from prison walls to the boardrooms at majority-white organizations.
I Can't Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street [eBook] On July 17, 2014, a forty-three-year-old black man named Eric Garner died on a Staten Island sidewalk after a police officer put him in what has been described as an illegal chokehold during an arrest for selling bootleg cigarettes. The final moments of Garner's life were captured on video and seen by millions. His agonized last words, “I can't breathe,” became a rallying cry for the nascent Black Lives Matter protest movement.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption [eBook] The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice.
Making all Black lives matter : reimagining freedom in the twenty-first century Ransby interviewed more than a dozen of the movement's principal organizers and activists, and she provides a detailed review of its extensive coverage in mainstream and social media. Making All Black Lives Matter offers one of the first overviews of Black Lives Matter and explores the challenges and possible future for this growing and influential movement
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness [eBook] Argues that the War on Drugs and policies that deny convicted felons equal access to employment, housing, education, and public benefits create a permanent under caste based largely on race.
So you want to talk about race [eBook] Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from police brutality and cultural appropriation to the model minority myth in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race, and about how racism infects every aspect of American life.
The Souls of Black Folk [eBook] The Souls of Black Folk is a classic work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology, and a cornerstone of African-American literary history. The book, published in 1903, contains several essays on race, some of which had been previously published in Atlantic Monthly magazine.
Stay Woke: A People's Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter [eBook] The essential guide to understanding how racism works and how racial inequality shapes black lives, ultimately offering a road-map for resistance for racial justice advocates and antiracists.
Visualizing equality : African American rights and visual culture in the nineteenth century [eBook] In this book, Aston Gonzalez charts the changing roles of African American visual artists as they helped build the world they envisioned. Understudied artists such as Robert Douglass Jr., Patrick Henry Reason, James Presley Ball, and Augustus Washington produced images to persuade viewers of the necessity for racial equality, black political leadership, and freedom from slavery.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration [eBook] Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.
White Fragility : Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism [eBook] In this groundbreaking and timely book, antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility. Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo explores how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

Fiction

All American Boys When sixteen-year-old Rashad is mistakenly accused of stealing, classmate Quinn witnesses his brutal beating at the hands of a police officer who happens to be the older brother of his best friend. Told through Rashad and Quinn's alternating viewpoints.
Americanah [eBook] The bestselling novel from the award-winning author of We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele. The story of two Nigerians making their way in the U.S. and the UK, raising universal questions of race and belonging, the overseas experience for the African diaspora, and the search for identity and a home.Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time. Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.
The Hate U Give 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, Khalil's death is a national headline.

Graphic Novels

The Harlem Hellfighters The Harlem Hellfighters is a fictionalized account of the 369th Infantry Regiment--the first African American regiment mustered to fight in World War I. Despite extraordinary struggles and discrimination, the 369th became one of the most successful--and least celebrated--regiments of the war.
Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography With the thoroughly researched and passionately drawn Malcolm X, Helfer and award-winning artist Randy DuBurke capture Malcolm Little's extraordinary transformation from a black youth beaten down by Jim Crow America into Malcolm X, the charismatic, controversial, and doomed national spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
March This graphic novel is a first-hand account of Congressman John Lewis' lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis' personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.
The Silence of Our Friends A white family from a notoriously racist neighborhood in the suburbs and a black family from its poorest ward cross Houston's color line, overcoming humiliation, degradation, and violence to win the freedom of five black college students unjustly charged with the murder of a policeman.

Plays

Don't Start Me To Talking...: The Selected Plays [eBook] The Philadelphia Inquirer Artist and activist John M. O'Neal is best known for his Junebug Jabbo Jones cycle of plays, a remarkable collection of tales and anecdotes drawn from African American oral literature, which he has performed all over the globe. Four of these plays are included in this volume, along with four of O'Neal's other works: large-scale ensemble productions, first performed by his ensemble company Junebug Productions, as well as in collaboration with A Travelling Jewish Theater (San Francisco, California), Roadside Theater (Kentucky), and Pregones Theater (Bronx, New York).
Intimate Apparel/Fabulation [eBook] Intimate Apparel is about the empowerment of Esther, a proud and shy seamstress in 1905 New York who creates exquisite lingerie for both Fifth Avenue boudoirs and Tenderloin bordellos. In Fabulation Nottage re-imagines Esther as Undine, the PR-diva of today, who spirals down from her swanky Manhattan office to her roots back in Brooklyn. Through opposite journeys, Esther and Undine achieve the same satisfying end, one of self-discovery.
The Political Plays of Langston Hughes [eBook] Published here, for the first time, are four of Hughes’ most poignant, poetic, and political dramas, Scottsboro Limited, Harvest (also known as Blood on the Fields), Angelo Herndon Jones, and De Organizer. Each play reflects Hughes’ remarkable professionalism as a playwright as well as his desire to dramatize the social history of the African American experience, especially in the context of the labor movements of the 1930s and their attempts to attract African American workers
A Raisin in the Sun [eBook] 'Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stage,'observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever.
Topdog/Underdog [eBook] A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity is Suzan-Lori Parks latest riff on the way we are defined by history. The play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future.

Library Catalog

To find more books and eBooks on this topic, search the Library catalog using Library of Congress subject terms:

Feature Films

Fruitvale Station [streaming] Drama centered on the tragic shooting of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Bay Area father who was gunned down by a BART subway officer on New Year's Day in 2009, and whose murder shocked the nation after being captured on camera by his fellow passengers.
The Hate U Give Starr Carter navigates the perilous waters between her poor, black neighborhood and her prestigious, mainly white private school. This all changes when she finds herself in the middle of racial activism after her best friend is shot by police officers, and she's forced to make a decision. Allow the media to skewer her friend to protect the status quo, or stand up and tell the truth in memory of Khalil?
Selma [streaming] Civil-rights activists march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery to secure voting rights for black Americans in this docudrama, which focuses on the actions of Martin Luther King Jr.
Just Mercy [streaming] Bryan becomes a lawyer for the poor and oppressed after he graduates from Harvard. He meets Walter, a man who has been convicted of murder despite the lack of evidence. To obtain justice, he must navigate a world that is against people like them.

Documentaries

Agents of Change: The Longest Student Strike in U.S. History Current struggles to make colleges welcoming and relevant for students of color continue movements which swept across campuses fifty years ago. AGENTS OF CHANGE tells the timely and inspiring story of how successful protests for equity and inclusion led to establishing the first Black and Ethnic Studies departments at two very different universities: San Francisco State (1968) and Cornell (1969).
Broken on All Sides More African Americans are under 'correctional' (prison) control today than were enslaved in 1850. Why? The movie explores mass incarceration across the U.S. and the intersection of race, poverty, and the criminal justice and penal systems
I Am Not Your Negro [streaming] Using James Baldwin's unfinished final manuscript, Remember This House, this documentary follows the lives and successive assassinations of three of the author's friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., delving into the legacy of these iconic figures and narrating historic events using Baldwin's original words and a flood of rich archival material. An up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, this film is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter.

CNN Series

The First Time I Realized I Was Black Featuring over 25 celebrities and artists like Doug E Fresh, Jason George, Montel Williams and CNN talent like Kamau Bell, Van Jones, Don Lemon, Sara Sidner and Stephanie Elam, the project showcases some of the most prominent voices and their stories about the moment they realized they were black – and how their skin color affected how people saw or treated them.

TED Talks

The difference between being "not racist" and antiracist There is no such thing as being "not racist," says author and historian Ibram X. Kendi. In this vital conversation, he defines the transformative concept of antiracism to help us more clearly recognize, take responsibility for and reject prejudices in our public policies, workplaces and personal beliefs. Learn how you can actively use this awareness to uproot injustice and inequality in the world -- and replace it with love. (This virtual interview, hosted by TED's current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers and speaker development curator Cloe Shasha, was recorded June 9, 2020.)
The path to ending systemic racism in the US In a time of mourning and anger over the ongoing violence inflicted on Black communities by police in the US and the lack of accountability from national leadership, what is the path forward? Sharing urgent insights into this historic moment, Dr. Phillip Atiba Solomon, Rashad Robinson, Dr. Bernice King and Anthony D. Romero discuss dismantling the systems of oppression and racism responsible for tragedies like the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and far too many others -- and explore how the US can start to live up to its ideals. (This discussion, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson and current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, was recorded on June 3, 2020.)
What it takes to be racially literate Over the last year, Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo traveled to all 50 US states, collecting personal stories about race and intersectionality. Now they're on a mission to equip every American with the tools to understand, navigate and improve a world structured by racial division. In a dynamic talk, Vulchi and Guo pair the personal stories they've collected with research and statistics to reveal two fundamental gaps in our racial literacy -- and how we can overcome them.

Black Lives Matter Digital Resource Page A freely available Black Lives Matter learning resource, featuring a rich collection of handpicked articles from the digital archives of over 50 different publications.