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On Race and Racism

2020 has given us a global pandemic and a global uprising of anti-racism around the world and especially in the United States. Under normal circumstances, the library would be the place you could turn to for community gatherings and conversations but our doors remain closed, for now, while we figure out how to safely re-open. The Jeudevine Memorial Library strives to be a place where all people feel welcome no matter the color of your skin, religious affiliation, income level, sexual orientation, gender, or your political persuasion. The library is a place to learn about history, current events, dreams of what the future might be, and to build awareness and knowledge.

Some of us are already actively working toward racial justice, others have just begun. Some have not yet started. No matter where you are at right now or what your age or reading level is, we have books ranging from exploring the history of race in America to books on anti-racism as well as exploring these issues, and the lives of Black people around the world, through fiction. Contact the library for help finding the books you would like to read.

For some interesting podcasts on this topic, check out NPR's Hidden Brain.
This NY Times article includes several notable authors and titles.
Hardwick's own Ross Connelly has personally curated this list on the topic for us as well!

We would be happy to try to interlibrary loan any titles that we don't have in our collection. Ask us!

Below are just a few titles on the subject that we have available at the library - you can reserve them by searching our catalog, or calling/texting the library (472-5948 - be sure to give your name if texting):

Adult-focused Titles:

Adult non-fiction:

So You Want to Talk About Race? by Ijeoma Oluo;
Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi;
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander;
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson;
They Can’t Kill Us All: The Story of #Black Lives Matter by Wesley Lowery;
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo.

Adult fiction titles:

Americanah and Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie;
The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead;
The Darkest Child by Delores Phillips;
An American Marriage and Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones;
God Help the Children and Home by Toni Morrison
Deacon King Kong and Song Yet Sung by James McBride.

Documentary Films:

Alice's Ordinary People: Film about a civil rights worker;
Evanston's Living History;
Freedom riders;
Guns, germs, and steel;
I am not your Negro.

Youth-focused Titles:

YA/middle grade fiction titles:

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds;
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.
Dear Martin by Nic Stone;
Dread Nation by Justina Ireland;
Everywhere You Don’t Belong by Gabriel Bump;
How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon;
I'm Not Dying With You Tonight by Jones and Segal;
On the Come Up and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas;
the graphic novel series March by John Lewis;
Some Places More Than Others by Renee Watson;
This is My America by Kim Johnson;

YA/middle grade non-fiction titles:

Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone;
Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow by Louis Henry Gates, Jr. and Tonya Bolden;
Remember: the Journey to School Integration by Toni Morrison.
This Book is Antiracist by Tiffany Jewel
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds; adapted from the book by Ibram X. Kendi;

Picture Books:

Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes;
The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington.
Ellington Was Not A Street, by Ntozake Shange;
Grandaddy’s Turn: A Journey to the Ballot Box by Eric Stine and Daniel S. Bandy;
Love Double Dutch! by Doreen Spicer-Dannelly;
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison;
Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham;
This is the Rope: A Story From the Great Migration by Jacqueline Woodson;
Undefeated by Kwame Alexander;

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