Race, Social Justice, and Civil Rights
Resources about race, racism, police violence, social justice, civil resistance, hate crime, and civil rights.
Podcasts
Podcasts, Projects, and Other Online Resources
Scroll down for links to reading lists, podcasts, articles, Boston Public Library databases, and style guides.
Projects & Resources
Links to reading lists and other resources for people working to dismantle systemic racism:
- #Charlestonsyllabus
Educators can use this syllabus to broach conversations in the classroom about the horrendous events that unfolded in Charleston, South Carolina on the evening of June 17, 2015. These readings provide information about the history of racial violence in this country and contextualize the history of race relations in South Carolina and the U.S. in general. They also offer insights on race, racial identities, global white supremacy and black resistance. - #CharlottesvilleCurriculum
#CharlottesvilleCurriculum: That’s the Twitter hashtag for educators, parents and anyone else looking for resources to lead discussions with young people about the violence that just erupted in Charlottesville, when white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members marched and clashed with counterprotesters. - #ColinKaepernickSyllabus
Building on the work of Colin Kaepernick, Harry Edwards, members of the WNBA, Serena Williams, Bomani Jones, and others, this syllabus links American racism, the history of sports, African American athletes, #BLM, protests, and more. - #FergusonSyllabus
Created by Sociologists for Justice, this syllabus unpacks the multiplicity of factors that contribute to the criminalization and marginalization of Black and Brown communities. The following is a collection of research articles used to inform the arguments in the public statement on the events in Ferguson. - #HateIsAVirus
The hashtag for a movement that began as a movement in April 2020 in response to the rise in hate crimes against the Asian American / Pacific Islander (AAPI) community due to the pandemic. - #StandingRockSyllabus
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) was rerouted near the Standing Rock Reservation, in violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 and 1868, and threatening the region's water supply as well as sacred cultural sites and burial grounds. This syllabus frames the Standing Rock protests of 2016-2017 in a broader historical, political, economic, and social context spanning over 500 years. - #WeNeedDiverseBooks
A movement that began on Twitter in response to a panel held by BookCon that lacked diversity. It then became an organization, We Need Diverse Books. - An Anti-Racist Reading List by Ibram X. Kendi
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is an author, historian, and scholar of race in America. In May of 2019, he compiled a list for The New York Times of books "that force us to confront our self-serving beliefs and make us aware that 'I’m not racist' is a slogan of denial." - Antiracism and Health Suggested Resources
Created by staff at Harvard's Countway Library, this resource list focuses on books, videos, web resources and articles that address racism as a health issue. - Brookings Institution: The Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative
The Race, Prosperity, and Inclusion Initiative at Brookings aims to advance concrete policy solutions that combat systemic racism and build a more equitable society for all Americans, with a particular focus on poor, low-income and communities of color. - The Dakota Access Pipeline: Native American Perspectives
This guide aims to provide Native American perspectives on the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,200 mile oil pipeline built through the land of the Standing Rock Sioux people and across the Missouri River which provides drinking water and water for agriculture for millions of Americans. - Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Library
The Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Library is a collection of books, films, and other resources selected by the Harvard Kennedy School Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging (ODIB) and Library & Knowledge Services (LKS). - Lemonade Syllabus
In May 2016, following the release of Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade, Candice Benbow created the #LemonadeSyllabus hashtag and social media campaign. With contributions from over 70 Black women, Candice released the syllabus as a free downloadable resource of over 250 works centered around the lives of Black women. Within the first week, it was downloaded over 40,000 times. - RACE: Are We So Different?
Looking through the eyes of history, science and lived experience, the RACE Project explains differences among people and reveals the reality – and unreality – of race. The story of race is complex and may challenge how we think about race and human variation, about the differences and similarities among people. RACE is a project of American Anthropological Association, funded by the Ford Foundation & National Science Foundation. - A Seat at the Table Syllabus
In February 2017, Candice Benbow collaborated with The Elle.com Media Scholars at the Anna Julia Cooper Center at Wake Forest University, under the direction of Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry, to create the A Seat at the Table Syllabus (#SeatSyllabus) in response to Solange Knowles’ powerful album of the same name. The syllabus centered the voices of young women of color between the ages of 16 and 30. - Syllabus: Elizabeth Warren, Cherokee Citizenship, and DNA Testing
The goal of this syllabus is to frame the recent claims to Cherokee ancestry by US Senator Elizabeth Warren as part of a longer history of cultural appropriation, erasure, and settler colonialism. - Teaching Tolerance
Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants. - Under Our Skin
A project of The Seattle Times, "Under Our Skin" unpacks the language we use to talk about race, then invites 18 people representing a mix of backgrounds and perspectives to discuss what those expressions mean to them. - The Whiteness Project
A PBS POV Interactive Shorts program, the Whiteness Project is an interactive investigation into how Americans who identify as white, or partially white, understand and experience their race.
Databases at the Boston Public Library
The databases listed here are available at the BPL or with your library card or research card. They offer access to thousands of digitized historical sources, literary works, scholarly articles, images, reference articles, and more. As always, feel free to ask your local librarian (ask@bpl.org) for help navigating these sources.
- American Indian NewspapersFrom historic pressings to contemporary periodicals, explore nearly 200 years of Indigenous print journalism from the US and Canada.
- Asian American Drama252 plays by 42 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
- Biography in ContextBiography In Context is a database built on a foundation of more than 650,000 biographical entries covering international figures from all time periods and areas of study.
- Black Drama, Second EditionApproximately 1,462 plays by 233 playwrights, with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
- Credo ReferenceFind definitions and encyclopedia entries on many topics, including those relating to race, racism, and civil rights.
- Global Issues in ContextGlobal Issues in Context offers current, international news and perspectives on the most talked about, debated and studied issues and events in world hot spots.
- JSTORFull-text articles from hundreds of scholarly journals from the mid-19th century to the early 21st century covering a wide range of subjects, including complete runs of many historical journals. The most recent 3-5 years of current journals are not available in full-text.
- Latino LiteratureMore than 100,000 pages pages of poetry, fiction, and over 450 plays written in English and Spanish by hundreds of Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and other Latino authors working in the United States.
- North American Indian Drama244 plays by 48 playwrights, more than half of which are previously unpublished, representing groups such as Cherokee, Métis, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Ojibway, Lenape, Comanche, Cree, Navajo, Rappahannock, Hawaiian/Samoan, and others.
- Slavery and Anti-Slavery: a Transnational ArchiveThis database contains: 5.4 million cross-searchable pages: 12048 books, 170 serials, 71 manuscript collections, 377 supreme court records and briefs and 194 reference articles from Macmillan, Charles Scribner's Sons and Gale encyclopedias.
- US History in ContextProvides integrated access to historical (primary) documents, reference articles, full-text journals covering themes, events, individuals and periods in U.S. history from pre-Colonial times to the present. Also includes citations for over 180 additional history journals from the Institute for Scientific Information's Arts and Humanities Citation Index.
- World History in ContextMore than 10,000 pages of primary source materials, full-text periodicals, and reference works help you explore more than 4,900 years into the past.
Conscious Style Guides
- Conscious Style GuideA simple and accessible community resource for anyone curious or serious about conscious language.
- Disability Language Style GuideThis style guide, developed by the National Center on Disability and Journalism at Arizona State University, covers almost 200 words and terms commonly used when referring to disability.
- The Diversity Style GuideThis guide, initially a project of the Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University, brings together definitions and information from more than two dozen style guides, journalism organizations and other resources.
- GLAAD Media Reference GuideGLAAD's Media Reference Guide is intended to be used by journalists reporting for mainstream media outlets and by creators in entertainment media who want to tell LGBTQ people's stories fairly and accurately.
- The Homosaurus: An International LGBTQ Linked Data VocabularyThe Homosaurus is an international linked data vocabulary of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) terms.
- Writing about Race, Ethnicity, Social Class, and DisabilityCreated by the Nesbitt-Johnston Writing Center at Hamilton College, this handout is an effort to help guide writers in the choice of acceptable language to use when writing about groups of people.
- Writing for Web AccessibilityThis page introduces some basic considerations to help you get started writing web content that is more accessible to people with disabilities.
Select Articles
- "Survey Reveals a Need for Greater Workplace Inclusivity" (Publishers Weekly, 2021)
- "Boston sheds more light on its relationship to slavery" (The Boston Globe, 2021)
- "Mainstream media fell short in Atlanta shooting coverage, activists say" (Center for Health Journalism, 2021)
- "Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?" by Ibram X. Kendi (The Atlantic, 2020)
- "158 Resources to Understand Racism in America" (Smithsonian Magazine, 2020)
- "About One-in-Four U.S. Hispanics Have Heard of Latinx, but Just 3% Use It" (Pew Research Center, 2020)
- "Besides Protesting, Here Are Five Ways to Actively Support the Black Lives Matter Movement in Boston" (Boston Magazine, 2020)
- "The People Fighting 'Light Skin' Bias" (BBC, 2020)
- "How to support racial justice in Massachusetts" (Boston.com, 2020)
- "Ten Ways to Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide" (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2017)
- "A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement" by Alicia Garza (The Feminist Wire, 2014)
- "Constructing a Conversation on Race" by Charles M. Blow (The New York Times, 2014)
- "Five Reasons Why People Code-Switch" by Matt Thompson (NPR, 2013)
- "The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism" by Audre Lorde (keynote presentation at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference, 1981)