Anti-Racism Resources: Books

Books to read:

• A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Biased by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
• Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins
• Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin Banaji
• Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Dr. Brittney Cooper
• Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Davis
• Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon
• Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
• How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie
• Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
• Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
• My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem
• Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence by Derald Wing Sue
• Racism Without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
• Raising Our Hands by Jenna Arnold
• Redefining Realness by Janet Mock 
• Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores by Dominique DuBois Gilliard
• Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
• The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs
• The Race Track: Understanding and Challenging Structural Racism by Kimberlé Crenshaw
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color by Cherríe Moraga
• Toxic Ivory Towers: The Consequences of Work Stress on Underrepresented Minority Faculty by Ruth Enid Zambrana
• Unapologetic by Charlene Carruthers
• When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson
• White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, PhD
• White Rage by Carol Anderson
• Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Several of these books can already be found at Illinois College's Schewe Library through the Schewe Library Catalog. If you are having trouble finding more books, see our Finding Books guide

Some example keywords to follow up on searches of your own in our local or I-Share catalogs:

• Prejudice & Racism
• United States > Race relations > Philosophy
• Social reformers > United States
• Public welfare
• United States > Social conditions
• Police-community relations
• Feminist theory