The Fire Next Time
by James Baldwin
Written by one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century, this chronicle of a childhood in Harlem helped inspire the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s.
The Warmth of Other Suns
by Isabel Wilkerson
The first African American woman to win the Pulitzer prize in journalism, this book is her chronicle of the Great Migration of African Americans from the 1920’s through the 1970’s.
1919
by Eve Ewing
An Afrofuturist poets’ look at the Chicago race riots of 1919 by local author, sociologist and visual artist Eve Ewing.
Chicago Race Riots July 1919
by Carl Sandburg
A contemporary account of the riots by a journalist and poet who reported on them for the Chicago Daily News. Sandburg offered readers rare insights into the plight of black Americans, whose voices were seldom heard in white publications.
Redlined: a Memoir of Race, Change and Fractured Community in 1960s Chicago
by Linda GartzThe personal story of a white Garfield Park family who owned multiple properties in a “changing” neighborhood. A window into how racist policies destroy families of all races.
South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation
by Natalie Y Moore
A local resident (and WBEZ’s South Side Bureau reporter) writes a conversational, readable chronicle of her neighborhood in all its beauty and complexity.
Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life
by Eric Klinenberg
I think Kirkus Review said it best:
“Want to cut down on crime? Install a community garden, increase public library funding, and start talking to your neighbors.”
A book about how we can all learn to live together again.
Between the World and
Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The conceit of this brilliant essay is that it is letter from a black father to his son about what it means to be a black man in America.
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
By Richard Rothstein
Institutional racism and its intersection with segregated housing is the focus of Rothstein’s bestseller.
How to be an Anitracist & Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas In America
by Ibram X Kendi
Taken together, these two books offer a historical record of how racism developed in America, and an attempt to identify an intellectual space that is beyond the questions of segregation or assimilation – Anti-Racism.
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
By Robin Diangelo
‘White Fragility’ is a term coined by the author to describe the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. The book attempts to look for more productive forms of engagement between races.
Life of a Klansman: A Family History in White Supremacy
by Edward Ball
Demographic estimates suggest that roughly half of white Americans have ties to the Klan through their family histories. Ball was just brave enough to write a memoir about his. He even interviewed descendants of the victims of his Klan kinsman.
Live From Death Row
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Dispatches from Death Row, written beautifully and powerfully by a man that some believe is a political prisoner. Abu-Jamal is no longer a death row inmate – his sentence was commuted to life in prison.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
By Michelle Alexander
"We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” That is the argument Michelle Alexander presents – and proves convincingly - in her essential book.
There is also the writing of black feminists, professors and activists like Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper, Morgan Jenkins, Eve L Ewing, Bell Hooks, Bryan Stevenson, and Angela Y Davis.
Both Obamas have written excellent books.
Then there is the poetry of Nate Marshall, Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, Britteney Black Rose Kapri, Angela Jackson, and Jose Olivarez.Or the great novels of James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker. Or the fantastical fiction of Octavia Butler and N.K. Jemisin.Also, anything by Cornel West is worth reading.
This list could be a lot longer, but these are just some ideas to get you started.
