We need to talk about race.

As a bookstore, it is our responsibility to showcase books as educational tools for people to learn from because we understand that ignorance can be dangerous and even deadly. In order to combat racism and hatred, we want to encourage people to discuss race, but not before doing some homework and checking out some, or all, of the titles below.

“Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.” - Rosa Parks

Fiction

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

This award-winning fictionalized account of a slave named Cora is about her journey to freedom through the Underground Railroad, a network of literal trains in Whitehead’s pre-Civil War re-imagining.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Yaa Gyasi explores the legacy of slavery and the complex history of African-Americans through characters from different generations.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

One of the greatest 20th century American novels, Invisible Man follows an unnamed black narrator who isolates himself after being constantly misunderstood through college and later in Harlem.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

In this exploration of race, gender, and class, the main character, a black girl named Pecola, longs to meet an unattainable standard of beauty: to have blond hair and blue eyes.

Nonfiction

They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery

Washington Post writer, Wesley Lowery, travels to heavily policed areas over a one-year period in order to understand and reveal the scale of police violence in America today.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Coates wrote this memoir as a guide and letter to his teenage son, and in it he depicts the life of an intelligent and capable man who too often finds himself at odds with a society averse to and exploitative of black individuals.

Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis

In this collection of essays and speeches, activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis discusses systematic oppression of people of color while connecting black and Palestinian freedom struggles.

Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? by Mumia Abu-Jamal

The author addresses police violence, the media, & various injustices against people of color while encouraging a movement for change.

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

A hybrid of poems, sketches, and essays, Citizen puts modern-day racism, online and in the media, on display.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Institutional racism exists in powerful iterations, and in the case of mass incarceration, it covertly enslaves black people. Using evidence and research, Alexander reveals the flawed justice system that actively works against black individuals.

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race by Jesmyn Ward

This collection of essays and poems that reflect on race is a contemporary response to James Baldwin’s revolutionary work, The Fire Next Time (below).

Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty by Dorothy Roberts

This important work discusses the racist government policies that have affected black women’s bodies for years, including the coerced sterilization of poor black women in the 1970’s. Watch Dorothy Roberts in conversation with Well-Read Black Girl founder Glory Edim at Strand for the twentieth-anniversary edition of her groundbreaking book HERE.

Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon

Bold and honest, this scientific analysis of the black psyche in a white-dominated world is an important work that explores race theory in a historical and psychological context.

Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur

Assata Shakur gives a personal account of her questionable murder conviction and subsequent escape in this political biography. Still an activist, she explains how the government worked to criminalize black activists and leaders.

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

This groundbreaking personal account of racial injustice condemns a racist society and reminds contemporary readers of just how little has changed.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

In her debut-turned-classic novel, Maya Angelou gives a first-hand account what it is like to face a lifetime of prejudice and come out loving yourself in the end.

The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois

Du Bois was key in the black protests of the early 20th-century, and the publication of this collection of essays on race dramatically impacted how people worked toward demanding equality.

for Children

Skin Again by bell hooks

This important children’s book offers a way for families to talk to their children about race, relaying the message that race matters but what’s inside matters most.

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