Black Lives Matter

Documentaries

• 13th - Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans. 

• Black in Latin America - Henry Louis Gates Jr. travels to places in Latin America where Africa has touched the continent with lasting cultural results to explore what happens when African and Hispanic worlds meet.

• I Am Not Your Negro - Raoul Peck offers an incendiary snapshot of James Baldwin's crucial observations on American race relations—and a sobering reminder of how far we've yet to go.

• Whose Streets? - Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising.

• The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson - As she fights the tide of violence against trans women, activist Victoria Cruz probes the suspicious 1992 death of her friend Marsha P. Johnson.

Movies/Series 

• Just Mercy - A powerful true story that follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his battle for justice as he defends a man sentenced to death despite evidence proving his innocence.

• Do the Right Thing - Directed and produced by Spike Lee, the film focuses on a single day, one of the hottest days in the summer, of the lives of racially diverse people in Brooklyn, New York. It centers on how social class, race, and the moral decisions that the characters make have a direct effect on the way people interact with each other. 

• When They See Us - Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park. Based on the true story.

• The Hate U Give - Based on Angie Thomas's YA novel of the same name, The Hate U Give tells the story of Starr, who witnesses her friend shot dead by police after reaching for his hairbrush. 

Reading Material

• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi - The book takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.

• Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad - This 28-day challenge leads readers through a journey of understanding their white privilege and participation in white supremacy so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on black, indigenous and people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.

• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander - The New Jim Crow accounts of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement.

• So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo - Readers of all races are guided through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.

• White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation by Lauren Michele Jackson - White Negros exposes the new generation of whiteness thriving at the expense and borrowed ingenuity of Black people—and explores how this intensifies racial inequality.

• Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Industry Undermined Black Homeownership -  Race for Profit chronicles how the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 failed to stop racist, exploitative mortgage lending practices. Since the policy was supposed to be a balm to the 1960s uprisings—much like the ones we're seeing now—it serves as a reminder to remain vigilant when policymakers promise change.

• A Terrible Thing To Waste: Environmental Racism And Its Assault On The American Mind by Harriet A. Washington - From lead poisoning to toxic waste, Americans of color are disproportionately harmed by environmental hazards. This is detrimental to physical health—air pollution is linked with higher COVID-19 death rates. But Washington also argues that environmental racism is causing a cognitive decline in communities of color.

• My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Our Bodies by Resmaa Menakem- Therapist Resmaa Menakem makes a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.

• From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America by Elizabeth Hinton - Elizabeth Hinton traces the rise of mass incarceration to an ironic source: not the War on Drugs of the Reagan administration but the War on Crime that began during Johnson’s Great Society at the height of the civil rights era.

• Blackballed: The Black Vote and U.S. Democracy by Darryl Pinckney - Blackballed addresses the struggle for voting rights and for racial equality more broadly, drawing on Pinckney's own experiences and writings of civil rights leaders to create a complicated picture of black political identity.

Podcasts

• 1619 - A New York Times audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.

• Intersectionality Matters! - A podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.

• The United States of Anxiety - A show about the unfinished business of our history and its grip on our future.

• About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge - A series featuring key voices from the last few decades of anti-racist activism, About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge looks at the recent history that leads to the politics of today.

• Come Through with Rebecca Carroll - A series featuring 15 essential conversations about race in a pivotal year for America. 

• Speaking of Racism - A podcast dedicated to frank, honest, and respectful discussions about racism in the U.S.