Anti-Racist Reading Lists

Read the Nesmith Library Statement reaffirming our commitment to informing positive change in our community.

Black History Month 2021

Visit our Own Voices Tell Black History video recommendations each week of February to engage with insightful thinkers providing fresh, thoughtful perspectives on Black identity and to move forward with new perspective and purpose. The videos and this graphic are from TED.com's Black History Month playlist.

February 5 - February 12 - February 19 - February 26

We also recommend these Black History Month resources for further reading:

Fold3 Black History Collection by Ancestry
The History Makers: The Nation’s Largest African American Video Oral History Collection
Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Anti-Racism Resources for Caregivers

Raising Race Conscious Children is an expansive resource for book lists, anecdotes, and resources about how to discuss race and other topics with children. In particular, they did a round up of the type of language that can be helpful in these conversations with their 100th post, 100 RACE-CONSCIOUS THINGS YOU CAN SAY TO YOUR CHILD TO ADVANCE RACIAL JUSTICE. Here's one example quote:

“There are lots of people in the world whose lives and experiences are very different from ours and if we only read books about White characters, our understanding of the world leaves out a lot of what the world is like.”

Children's Books

Watch this Virtual Browsing video for some items currently available at Nesmith Library with stories and strategies for discussing historic and current issues of race.

Items in this video: Items hyperlinked are available for curbside borrowing.

Juvenile fiction:

A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramee
Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia
More Than a Princess by E. D. Baker
The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste
Shadows of Sherwood by Kekla Magoon
The Watsons Go To Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis
As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds
The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore

Nonfiction:

Show Me History Martin Luther King Jr. Voice for Equality by James Buckley Jr.
Kid Activists True Tales of Childhood From Champions of Change by Robin Stevenson
Not My Idea A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham
Black Lives Matter by Duchess Harris, JD, PHD
We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson
I Have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester
Who Belongs Here? by Margy Burns Knight

Picture Books:

I Am Enough by Grace Byers
Magnificent Homespun Brown by Samara Cole Doyon

This Anti-Racism For Kids 101 Book Collection from BooksforLittles.com also includes a lot of helpful advice about how to read with your children and converse with them about the broader state of racial equality and diversity. Here are the books recommended in the collection: we encourage you to dig deeper into their site for further recommendations! Items hyperlinked are available for curbside borrowing. Items in bold are by Own Voices creators.

All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold (Ages 4-7)

Lovely by Jess Hong (Ages 2+)

We're Different, We're the Same by Bobbi Kates (Ages 2-5)

The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson (Ages 6-12)

Where Are You From? by Yamile Saied Méndez (Ages 3-10)

Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal (Ages 3-8)

We Are America by Walter Dean Myers (Ages 6+)

Three Balls of Wool by Henriqueta Cristina (Ages 3-9)

Spork by Kyo Maclear (Ages 4+)

Adult & YA Books

Visit this Padlet: Anti-Racism Resources for all ages - A Project by the Augusta Baker Chair for a ton of great resources on anti-racism.

We also recommend the I Can Make a Difference Manual for Kids, Teens, and Parents from Finkelstein Memorial Library, Spring Valley, NY.

Librarians from the American Library Association have also recommended A Black Lives Matter Comics Reading List: check on Hoopla for titles that interest you!

Adult Nonfiction at Nesmith Library: Follow the links to place a hold in our catalog and participate in curbside borrowing.

Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City by Wes Moore and Erica L. Green

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Ph.d.

On Account of Race: The Supreme Court, White Supremacy, and the Ravaging of African American Voting Rights by Lawrence Goldstone

Tulsa 1921: Reporting a Massacre by Randy Krehbiel and  Karlos K. Hill

We Are Called to Be a Movement by William Barber

Anti-racist researcher Victoria Alexander put together reading lists relevant to the current protests. Visit her Twitter & Instagram @victoriaalxndr to see more resources, and amplify melanated voices wherever you can.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from my non-Black friends about how to be a better ally to Black people. I suggest unlearning and relearning through literature as just one good jumping off point, and have broken up my anti-racist reading list into sections

— Victoria Alexander (@victoriaalxndr) May 30, 2020