Notable books on systemic racism, racial justice, and anti-racism
To encourage learning and research in systemic racism, racial justice, and anti-racism, Bowdoinham Public Library staff share the following list of books available at the library.We are grateful to patrons who made suggestions of titles to acquire, and to those who made donations to support the expantion of this important collection.Dave Asmussen of Blue Bell Farm and Reeve Wood and Hannah Burroughs of Counterpoint Bread both gave a portion of their sales in the days and weeks following George Floyd’s murder to support these book purchases. Come in to the library (Curently open Tuesdays and Fridays) or call to arrange curbside loan.
Racism Collection (1)
| Alexander, Michelle | The New Jim Crow | Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness | 2010 |
| Anderson, Carol | White Rage | The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide | 2016 |
| Baker, Calvin | A More Perfect Reunion | Race, Integration and the Future of America | 2020 |
| Baldwin, James | The Fire Next Time | 1963 | |
| Ben Crump | Open Season | Legalized Genocide of Colored People | 2019 |
| Coates, Ta Nahisi | The Water Dancer | 2019 | |
| Coates, Ta-Nehisi | Between the World and Me | 2015 | |
| DiAngelo, Robin | White Fragility | Why it’s so hard for White People to Talk about Racism | 2018 |
| Diouf, Sylviane A. | Dreams of Africa in Alabama | The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America | 2007 |
| Dyson, Michael E. | Tears we Cannot Stop | A sermon to White America | 2017 |
| Forman, James Jr. | Locking Up Our Own | Crime and Punishment in Black America | 2017 |
| Gates, Jr, Henry Louis | Stony the Road | Reconstruction, white supremacy, and the rise of Jim Crow | 2019 |
| Griffin, John Howard | Black Like Me | 1960 | |
| Irving, Debby | Waking Up White | And Finding Myself in the Story of Race | 2014 |
| Kendi, Ibram X. | Stamped from the Beginning | the definitive history of racist ideas in America | 2017 |
| Kendi, Ibram X. | How to be an AntiRacist | 2019 | |
| Layla F. Saad | Me and White Supremacy | Combat Racism, Change the World, Become a Good Ancestor | 2020 |
| Oluo, Ijeoma | So you Want to Talk About Race | 2018 | |
| Phillips, Patrick | Blood at the Root | A Racial Cleansing in America | 2016 |
| Rankine, Claudia | Citizen | An American Lyric | 2014 |
| Reynolds, Jason | Stamped | Racism, antiracism, and you | 2020 |
| Rothstein, Richard | The Color of Law | A forgotten history of how our government segregated America | 2017 |
| Ta-Nehisi Coates | Between the World and Me | 2015 | |
| Tatum , Beverly Daniel | Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? | And Other Conversations About Race | 1997 |
| Ward, Jesmyn | The Fire This Time | A new generation Speaks about race | 2016 |
| William H. Chafe | Remembering Jim Crow | African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South | 2001 |
We are now able to request items as we used to, through the Maine State Library’s interlibrary loan system. We still must defray the cost of mailing the item back by charging patrons $3 per title. Please contact the library to put in your requests. Having trouble accessing the state wide catalog? call Kate and she will walk you through. Look for the “MaineCat” button on the homepage or try this link