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)
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
Here are the reading lists from the images. Items hyperlinked are either digitally available or available for curbside borrowing.
Stamped from the Beginning - Ibram X Kendi (Audiobook now available FOR FREE on Spotify!)
Stamped - Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn (There is a "young people's" version for elementary and middle school readers)
White Fragility - Robin Diangelo (also available through Cloudlibrary as an ebook and eaudiobook)
So you want to talk about race - Ijeoma Oluo
I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness - Austin Channing Brown
Me and White Supremcy - Layla F Saad
The Burning House: Jim Crow and the Making of Modern America - Anders Walker
The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander
The Condemnation of Blackness - Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Dying of Whiteness - Jonathan Metzl
A Different Mirror - Ronald Takaki
How to be an AntiRacist - Ibram X Kendi
How the South Won the Civil War - Heather Cox Richardson
Evicted - Matthew Desmond
Nobody - Marc Lamont Hill
Lies My Teacher Told Me - James W Loewen
Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria - Berver Doniel Tatum, PhD
The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein
Blackballed - Darryl Pinkney
Anti-Racist Lit; Bios, Non-fiction, novels, personal narratives:
The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabel Wilkerson
The Fire Next Time - James Baldwin
Malcolm X - Alex Haley
Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
Killing Rage Ending Racism - Bell Hooks
Becoming - Michelle Obama
An American Marriage - Tayari Jones
A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota - Sun Yung Shin
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother - James McBride
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption - Bryan Stevenson (also a young adult version)
The Myth Of Race - Robert Sussman
Anti-Racist Lit - Black Feminism:
How we Get Free - Keeanga-Yamhtta Taylor
Black Feminist Thought - Patricia Hill Collins
Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism - Bell Hooks
Bad Feminist - Roxane Gay
Eloquent Rage - Brittney Cooper
In Search of Our Mothers Gardens - Alice Walker
Sister Outsider - Audre Lorde
Women Race & Class - Angela Y Davis
Assata: An Autobiography - Assata Shakur
To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe - Akwugo Emejulu and Francesca Sobande
Anti Racist List Black LGBTQ+:
Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin
Zami - Audre Lorde
Real Life - Brandon Taylor
Unapologetic A black, queer, and feminist Mandate for Radical Movements - Charlene A Carruthers
No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies - E. Patrick Johnson
Since I Laid My Burden Down - Brontez Purnell
The Other Side of Paradise - Staceyann Chin
No Ashes in the Fire - Darnell L. Moore
The Summer We Got Free - Mia McKenzie
Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin
Rising Out of Hatred - Eli Saslow
Black On Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identiy - C. Riley Snorton