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Racial Justice Repository: Racial Justice Readings

Law Faculty Recommended Racial Justice Reading

1619 Project and Podcast by Nikole Hannah-Jones (recommended by Professor Chadwick)

American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass by Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton (recommended by Professor Boyack)

Beloved by Toni Morrison (recommended by Professors Elrod and Sourgens)

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (recommended by Professor Elrod)

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah (recommended by Dean Lowry)

The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes edited by Arnold Rampersad (recommended by Professor Westbrook)

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (recommended by Professor Boyack)

The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran (recommended by Professor Boyack)

A Conversation on Race by The New York Times (video) (recommended by Professor Kowalska)

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton (recommended by Professor Judd)

Forever Foreigners or Honorary Whites? The Asian Ethnic Experience Today by Mia Tuan (recommended by Professor Glashausser)

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (recommended by Professor Ewert)

How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (recommended by Carla Pratt)

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (recommended by Professor Marsha Griggs)

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (recommended by Professors FrancisGrantMartinMatthews, and Ramirez)

Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy Who Discovered He Was Black by Gregory Howard Williams (recommended by Professor Glashausser)

March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (3-volume graphic/illustrated novel) (recommended by Professor Kowalska)

Native Son by Richard Wright (recommended by Professor Alaka)

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (recommended by Professors FrancisGrantMartin, and Ramirez)

A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present by Howard Zinn (recommended by Professor Matthews)

Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship by Charles R. Epp, Steven Maynard-Muddy, and Donald Haider-Markel (recommended by Professor Hodgkinson)

Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (recommended by Professor Ewert)

Saving the Neighborhood: Racially Restrictive Covenants, Law and Social Norms by Carol M. Rose and Richard R. W. Brooks (recommended by Professor Boyack)

Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality by Richard Kluger (recommended by Dean Lowry and Professor Westbrook)

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde (recommended by Professor Chadwick)

Shattered Bonds: The Color Of Child Welfare by Dorothy Roberts (recommended by Professor Chadwick)

Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi (recommended by Carla Pratt)

Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism by Stokely Carmichael (recommended by Professor Marsha Griggs)

Texaco by Patrick Chamoiseau (recommended by Professor Sourgens)

There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz (recommended by Professor Alaka)

Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom (recommended by Professor Ewert)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (recommended by Dean Leisinger and Professor Hodgkinson)

Waking Up White by Debby Irving (recommended by Professor Grant)

"Was Blind But Now I See:" White Race Consciousness and the Law by Barbara J. Flagg (recommended by Professor Elrod)

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (recommended by Professors Grant and Kowalska)

Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White by Frank Wu (recommended by Professor Francis)

Other Racial Justice Readings

"An Immigrant Contextualizes the George Floyd Verdict" by Rory D. Bahadur, Washburn Law Journal Blog (April 25, 2021).

"The Breaking Point: 'People finally see it. White people too'" by Caroline Mimbs Nyce, The Atlantic Daily (June 10, 2020).

"Why Minneapolis Was the Breaking Point" by Wesley Lowery, The Atlantic (June 10, 2020).

Protesting For Change by Samantha Divine, Medium.com (June 9, 2020).

"A Black Father's Letter to His Black Son: 'My Mission Is to Keep You Safe'" by A. Michael Pratt, Law.com (June 18, 2020).

"75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice" by Corinne Shutack, Medium.com (August 13, 2017).

"Talking Racial Equity? Make Sure You Understand These 17 Words" by Sabrina Vourvoulias, Technical.ly (June 10, 2020).

"Crimes Against African Americans" by L. Ali Khan, Jurist: Legal News and Research (June 3, 2020).

Other Resources

General

Statement by American Association of Law Schools (AALS) on Efforts to Ban the Use or Teaching of Critical Race Theory (August 3, 2021)

Anti-Racist Resources compiled by Angel Zimmerman (June 12, 2020; updated September 2, 2020) (228 KB PDF) (lists of podcasts, videos, blogs, reports, books, scholarships, poems, movies, etc.)

Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project, American Association of Law Schools (links to books, articles, studies, other websites, music, art).

Remarkable Life of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Conversation with Washburn Law Dean Carla Pratt, September 25, 2020 (31 minute podcast). Tribute to the Justice Bader Ginsburg, whose jurisprudential legacy includes gender equality, civil rights, voting rights, and dignity for all people. (Conversation with Carla Pratt begins at 5:00.)

Teach-In for Racial Justice, a virtual collaboration by seven law schools on September 8-9, 2020. Videos from the teach-in include: Becoming an Antiracist LawyerBlack Lawyers MatterBuilding an Antiracist Law SchoolImplicit Bias in Bankruptcy Law and PracticeRace and Contract LawWater Justice in Indian Country; and Race Matters.

Pushing Back Against Racism and Xenophobia on Campuses (Inside Higher Ed, May 14, 2020)

Black/African American

Mental Health Issues Facing the Black Community

Asian American and Pacific Islander

How to Support Asian American Colleagues Amid the Recent Wave of Anti-Asian Violence (CNBC, February 19, 2021)

The Long History of Racism Against Asian Americans in the U.S. (PBS News Hour, April 9, 2020)

"Coronavirus/COVID-19 Resources to Stand Against Racism," Asian Americans Advancing Justice