Anti-racism Resources

Links to the resources are located on the left

On June 3, 2020, Dr. Doug Searcy, President of Barton College, tasked "faculty and students to help curate a list of resources to promote awareness, empathy, and action" concerning racism (explicit, implicit, and/or systemic) in our country.  He also said that Barton College "will have the discussions that help us be an authentic and just community; we will share resources and continue discussions around social justice and cultural competence; and, we will affirm and amplify the voices of underrepresented people and continue to lead as we advocate for change."

We have taken that challenge here at Hackney Library.  We have curated a list of anti-racism resources available at the library.  Most of these resources are books in our catalog, while a few are eBooks and videos available on our website.  Presented in an annotated bibliography style, this list of 47 resources covers many subjects, including the history of racism in America, slavery, Reconstruction, white supremacy, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as personal stories of bullying, discrimination, and violence, as well as racial hopes, fears, fury, and triumphs.

While some of these resources are written for academia, others have been written by some of the best teachers and thinkers of our time, including James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michael Eric Dyson, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Cornel West.  Still others are written by popular figures, such as Malcolm X's Autobiography of Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley), and even comedians such as Dick Gregory and D.L. Hughley, who both give their take on racism, Black history, and being Black in America.  We have also included two popular books, How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, and White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo.

Also on this list are recent books by two well-known politicians and how they dealt with race riots and the issue of Confederate monuments: Beyond Charlottesville: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism by former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe, and In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History by former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu.