Resources on Race Equity and Justice
Articles and Academic Papers
Amnesty or Abolition? (by Kelly Lytle Hernández)
And the Whole Truth Will Set You Free (by Adam R. Taylor)
My black Catholic church was closed in the name of integration (by Charles Williams)
Nothing to add: A Challenge to White Silence in Racial Discussions (by Robin DiAngelo)
The Anti-Racist Revelations of Ibram X. Kendi (by David Montgomery)
The Injustice of this Moment Is Not an ‘Aberration’ (by Michelle Alexander)
What Seattle’s redlining history tells us about wealth today (by Eric Keto)
What White People Need to Know About Black History (by Jeff Raikes)
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (by Peggy Macintosh)
Books
At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America
This extraordinary account of lynching in America, by acclaimed civil rights historian Philip Dray, shines a clear, bright light on American history’s darkest stain—illuminating its causes, perpetrators, apologists, and victims.
In Search of the Racial Frontier: African Americans in the American West 1528-1990
A landmark history of African Americans in the West, In Search of the Racial Frontier rescues the collective American consciousness from thinking solely of European pioneers when considering the exploration, settling, and conquest of the territory west of the Mississippi.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
The National Book Award winning history of how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society.
The Children is David Halberstam’s brilliant and moving evocation of the early days of the civil rights movement, as seen through the story of the young people–the Children–who met in the 1960s and went on to lead the revolution.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
Legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” By targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
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.
The Yellow House: A Memoir
A memoir by Sarah Broom, focused on three generations of a black family in New Orleans. A brilliant, haunting, and unforgettable memoir from a stunning new talent about the inexorable pull of home and family, set in a shotgun house in New Orleans East.
Films and Videos
Documentaries
Scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom.
Holy Hierarchy: The Religious Roots of Racism in America
Holy Hierarchy explains how the notions of a Supreme Being in colonial Virginia led to beliefs of supreme human beings and how these beliefs morphed their way into the legal system; ultimately turning racism into an institution.
Keepers of the Dream: Seattle Women Black Panthers
This series of five short documentaries, produced by Patricia Boiko and Tajuan LaBee and scored by SassyBlack, shares the stories of women involved in the Seattle Black Panther Party, the first chapter of the BPP created outside of California.
The Who We Are Project: Jeff Robinson’s upcoming documentary film
Weaving heartbreak, humor, passion, and rage, Robinson’s documentary takes us through this stolen history, showing us how the legacy of slavery and U.S. imperialism impacts every aspect of imperialism impacts our society.
True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality
True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s FIght for Equality follows Stevenson’s struggle to create greater fairness in the legal system and shows how racial injustice emerged, evolved and continues to threaten the country, challenging viewers to confront it.
Videos
Deconstructing White Privilege (with Robin DiAngelo, 22 min):
Dr. Robin DiAngelo is the author of “White Fragility” and has been an anti-racist educator, and has heard justifications of racism by white men and women in her workshops for over two decades.
We need to talk about an injustice (22 minutes):
Human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America’s justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country’s black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives.
When Heritage Equals Hate: The Truth About the Confederacy in America (1 hour 40 min):
Jeff Robinson, the ACLU’s top racial justice expert, discusses the dark history of Confederate symbols across the country and outlines what we can do to learn from our past and combat systemic racism.
Podcasts and other media
A major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.
You can also find The 1619 Project Curricula, which includes a reading guide, terms index and lesson plan, at
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkersone reflects on her epic work of narrative non-fiction, The Warmth of Other Suns in this podcast episode.
The civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander is one of the people who is waking us up to history we don’t remember, and describes structures most of us can’t fathom intending to create in this podcast episode.
Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project
This multi-media web site brings the vital history of Seattle’s civil rights movements to life with scores of video oral histories, hundreds of rare photographs, documents, movement histories, and personal biographies, more than 300 pages in all. Based at the University of Washington, the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project is a collaboration between community groups and UW faculty and students.
Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into questions about race in America, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017. The series editor is Loretta Williams.
Poetry
Between the World and Me by Richard Wright
Songs for a Dark Girl by Langston Hughes
Relevant Legislation
A house bill and a senate bill aimed at eliminating the use of private detention operations in Washington State.
A house bill about creating the Washington state office of equity.
Organizations
The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
The People’s Institute helps individuals, communities, organizations and institutions move beyond addressing the symptoms of racism to undoing the causes of racism so as to create a more just and equitable society through workshops, technical assistance and consultations.
The Seattle Clemency Project’s mission is to increase access to justice by matching reformed men and women who have old criminal convictions with pro bono lawyers to reach a fair outcome in light of their redemption.
If you would like to add resources to this page, please email jessican@legalfoundation.org.