Altman, Linda Jacobs

Singing With Mama Lou, Lee & Low Books 2002

Children's book about a young African American girl who is forced to visit her grandmother who has Alzheimer's and lives in a nursing home. She starts bringing photos of the grandmother marching in civil rights demonstrations to jog her grandmother's memory, and thus successfully creates an opportunity for dialogue with her grandmother about racism.

Anand, Bernadette, Michelle Fine, Tiffany Perkins, David S. Surrey, and the Renaissance School Class of 2000

Keeping the Struggle Alive: Studying Desegregation in Our Town: A Guide to Doing Oral History, Teachers College Press 2002

Describes an interdisciplinary oral history social studies project by middle school students in New Jersey conducting oral history interviews, reviewing primary and secondary sources, developing their analytical skills, and in the process becoming more aware of the histories of struggle and resistance that are all around them.

Chin, Oliver

9 of 1: A Window to the World, Frog, Ltd./North Atlantic Books 2003

An edu-graphic story of nine students interviewing someone 'different from oneself' on their perceptions of the U.S. terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Realities and illusions of persons from a diverse range of national and cultural background emerge in the gathered reports.

Daly, John Patrick

When Slavery Was Called Freedom: Evangelicalism, Proslavery, and the Causes of the Civil War, The University Press of Kentucky 2002

Analyzes the role evangelical thought played in the antebellum Civil War period. Freedom was seen as the ability to choose what Providence intended; thus the emphasis on individual salvation allowed the "saved" persons to de-emphasize the role of social forces and institutions.

Due, Tananaruve; Due, Patricia Stephens

Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights, Ballantine/Random 2003

An accessible way into the past by having two generations present the lived experience of those participating in the civil rights struggles in Florida. The mother/daughter team present a fascinating narrative and analysis, then and now.

Farris, Christine King; Soentpiet, Christ

My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers: Growing Up with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers 2003

A story of childhood unfairness and loss, as well as one of hope and justice. The illustrations and the text do not attempt to hide realities, or to represent only cultural aspects of African American experience.

Gonzales, Patrisia

The Mud People: Chronicles, Testimonios & Remembrances, Chusma Press 2003

Chronicles strategies of eight significant, grassroots, human rights movements in Mexico from the 1930s to the early 1990s. Testimonies intertwine with the author's story of claiming an indigenous identity and healing from her own experiences of violence and trauma.

Hurtado, Aida

Voicing Chicana Feminisms: Young Women Speak Out on Sexuality and Identity, New York University Press 2003

Analysis from interviews of the ways that young Chicana women negotiate notions of justice while also being accountable to their families, communities, cultures, and social mores.

Irons, Peter

Jim Crow's Children: The Broken Promise of the Brown Decision, Viking 2002

Legal historian discusses two unfulfilled promises: that the decision would lead to the integration of this country's public schools, and that this in turn would result in an improved education for millions of African American children. Shows how the workings of the courts are strongly influenced by politics.

Jackson, Lawrence

Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2002

A tour de force biography unfolding how Ellison came to understand the complexities of race in the U.S. and how he grappled with his relationship as to the white establishment and to the varied, often at-odds definitions of what "America" is and could be.

Janken, Kenneth Robert

White: The Biography of Walter White, Mr. NAACP, The New Press 2002

The life story and political biography of the Executive Secretary of the NAACP (1931 - 1955) and the roles he played in the contentious world of machinations in the segregated U.S. society and nation.

Jones, Carolyn; Girl Scouts of America

Every Girl Tells A Story: A Celebration of Girls Speaking Their Minds, Simon & Schuster 2002

A collection of personal stories, with photographs, from 60+ girls aged 11 to 18 years have managed, through drive, commitment, and often faith, to achieve great things in their communities or in their personal lives.

Khan, Lin Shi; Perez, Tony; Lee, Andrew H. (Eds.)

Scottsboro Alabama: A Story in Linoleum Cuts, New York University Press 2002

Told in linoleum blocks and minimal text, the story of the nine African American youth unjustly imprisoned for an alleged rape. The circumstances of the trial tells much about oppression, and about the importance of building black-white solidarity in fostering racial justice.

King, Roger

A Girl from Zanzibar, Books & Co./Helen Marx 2002

Novel about the inner ruminations and geographical migrations of a young woman from Zanzibar to London, then to the U.S. A striking account of postcolonial migrations and the ways that cultures, peoples and ideas integrate and meld, often with hostility and discomfort.

Lanehart, Sonja L.

Sista, Speak! Black Women Kinfolk Talk about Language and Literacy, University of Texas Press 2002

Addresses the issue in the lives of five generations of African American women of language oppression, particularly concerning "standard English" and its relationship to self-identity, literacy, and educational opportunities.

Lent, ReLeah Cossett; Pipking, Gloria (Eds.)

Silent No More: Voices of Courage in American Schools, Heinemann 2002

Teachers, whose voices too-often are muted by bureaucratic mandates in the current restrictive educational atmosphere of high-stakes testing, speak out against the politics, discrimination and racism in our public education system.

Marable, Manning

The Great Wells of Democracy: The Meaning of Race in American Life, Basic Books 2002

Analysis of American history from the perspective of the special influence that race and class have had on the development of political institutions and how those institutions have always been compromised by white supremacist ideas and practices.

McRoberts, Omar M.

Streets of Glory: Church and Community in Black Urban Neighborhoods, University of Chicago Press 2003

Analysis of how the many religious institutions in an urban African American neighborhood interact positively and negatively with the people and issues of the community.

Moorti, Sujata

Color of Rape: Gender and Race in Television's Public Spheres, State University of New York Press 2002

Analysis of how pervasive male-centered fears of accusations of rape dominated the media during the era of the 1990s. Useful for groups doing media work, particularly on issues of sexual violence.

Robinet, Harriette Gillem

Twelve Travelers, Twenty Horses (Youth Fiction), Atheneum Books for Young Readers 2002

Written for students in their early teens, this novel speaks of subtle resistance to bondage, and of courage, initiative, self-reliance and group cohesiveness displayed by those enslaved.

Schwarz-Barr, Simone; Schwarz-Barr, Andre

In Praise of Black Women: Volume 2: Heroines of the Slavery Era, Univ. of Wisconsin Press 2002

Beautifully illustrated "coffee table" praise poem telling about the lives of fourteen enslaved women from the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Segrest, Mab

Born to Belonging: Writings on Spirit and Justice, Rutgers University Press 2002

A collection of travel narratives (Beijing, Atlanta, Johannesburg and more) reflecting on the nexus between spirituality and movements for social justice.

Smalls, Irene

Don't Say Ain't, Talewinds 2003

A children's story about what happens when an African American student (read students of color) leaves "the neighborhood" in pursuit of education and a "better life".

Trujillo, Carla

What Night Brings: A Novel, Curbstone Press 2002

A young Hispanic American girl's struggle in the 60s to find sustenance against all odds: a perilous home life, an incomprehensible Church, a transgendered identity in a largely indifferent world.

Waugh, Thomas

Out/Lines: Underground Gay Graphics from Before Stonewall, Arsenal Press 2002

An introduction to representation of queer life, pre-Stonewall, in American imagery and popular culture. Pencil, ink and chalk drawings claiming an erotic past as extremely important for notions of identity and community.

Winch, Julie

A Gentleman of Color: The life of James Forten, Oxford University Press 2002

Life story of a free-born black man, who was a Revolutionary War veteran and POW, who became a very successful businessman and civic leader in Philadelphia.

Wu, Frank

Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, Basic Books 2002

Essays on contemporary realities of racism, and on the inconsistencies between the color blindness that is invoked against affirmative action and the color consciousness that becomes apparent in the denunciation of immigration.