This guide highlights Dickinson library resources, including books, films, and databases, for expanding our understanding of social justice issues, so that we can combat discrimination in all its forms. You can discover more resources on the library website. If you would like help finding additional information sources, or if you wish to recommend additional resources, please contact a librarian for assistance.
Books: State Violence & Mass Incarceration in the United States
Chokehold: Policing Black Men by Call Number: Available Online
Deadly Injustice by Call Number: Available Online
Fight the Power: African Americans and the Long History of Police Brutality in New York City by Call Number: Available Online
From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America by Call Number: Available Online
The New Jim Crow by Call Number: Available Online
Nobody: Casualities of America's War on the Vulnterable, From Ferguson to Flint and Beyond by Call Number: Available Online (3 simultaneous users)
One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy by Call Number: JK1924 .A54 2018ISBN: 1635571375Publication Date: 2018-09-11
Policing Los Angeles: Race, Resistance, and the Rise of the LAPD by Call Number: Available Online
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Call Number: Available Online
Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces by Call Number: HV8080 .S64 B354 2013
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Call Number: E185.61 .K358 2016
Fiction by Contemporary Black Authors About Navigating White Supremacy
These are books in the library that were featured on this list, which can also be consulted for summaries as well as further titles:
The City We Became: A Novel by Call Number: PS3610.E46 C58 2020
Friday Black by Call Number: Available Online (2 simultaneous users)
God Help the Child: A Novel by Call Number: Available Online (1 user; more information forthcoming)
Lakewood: A Novel by Call Number: PS3607.I2748 L35 2020
The Memory Librarian by Call Number: PS3613.O52266 M46 2022ISBN: 9780063070875Publication Date: 2022-04-19
Real Life: A Novel by Call Number: Available Online (1 user; more information forthcoming)
The Revisioners: A Novel by Call Number: Available Online
Riot Baby by Call Number: PS3615.N93 R56 2020
The Sellout: A Novel by Call Number: PS3552 .E19 S45 2015
Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel by Call Number: Available Online (3 simultaneous users)
Such a Fun Age: A Novel by Call Number: Available Online (1 user; more information forthcoming)
We Cast a Shadow: A Novel by Call Number: Available Online (1 user; more information forthcoming)
Welcome to Braggsville: A Novel by Call Number: PS3610.O38339 W45 2015
Books: Popular Culture
Speculative Film and Moving Images by or about Black Women and Girls: Watch It! by Call Number: PN1995.9.S669535 J44 2023ISBN: 9781793627032Publication Date: 2023-01-31
Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes by Call Number: Available Online & PN6725 .N32 2011ISBN: 9780292726741Publication Date: 2011-10-01
Where No Black Woman Has Gone Before: Subversive Portrayals in Speculative Film and TV by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9781477315224Publication Date: 2018-03-01
Books: Black Lives Matter & Anti-Racism Movements
Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism by Call Number: Available Online
The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972 by Call Number: LC2781 .R65 2012ISBN: 0230117813Publication Date: 2012-04-03
Black Woman Reformer: Ida B. Wells, Lynching, and Transatlantic Activism by Call Number: Available Online
Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, 1865-1912 by Call Number: Available Online
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Call Number: HQ1413 .C67 C67 2018
The Fire This Time by Call Number: Available Online (3 simultaneous users)
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (Expanded Second Edition) by Call Number: E185.615 .T39 2021ISBN: 9781642594553Publication Date: 2021-06-01
Hands up, Don't Shoot: Why the Protests in Ferguson and Baltimore Matter, and How They Changed America by Call Number: Available Online
How to Be an Antiracist by Call Number: Available Online and E184.A1 K344 2019Publication Date: 2019
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River CollectiveCall Number: Available Online
The Making of Black Lives Matter by Call Number: Available Online (3 simultaneous users)
More Than Our Pain: Affect and Emotion in the Era of Black Lives Matter by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9781438483115Publication Date: 2021-04-01
NASA and the Long Civil Rights Movement by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9780813066202Publication Date: 2019-11-19
The People’s Plaza: Sixty-Two Days of Nonviolent Resistance by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9780826504975Publication Date: 2022-08-15
Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements by Call Number: Available Online & E185.615 .W636 2022ISBN: 9780197603949Publication Date: 2021-11-26
Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9780367853549Publication Date: 2019-12-09
Stay Woke: A People's Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter by Call Number: Available Online
Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical MovementsCall Number: Available Online (1 user)
What Ferguson Can Teach Us by Call Number: Available Online
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Call Number: E185.97 .K43 A3 2018
Comics
APB: Artists Against Police Brutality: A Comic Book Anthology by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 1495607526Publication Date: 2015-10-28
Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation by Call Number: Available Online & PN6725 .B56 2013ISBN: 9781441172761Publication Date: 2013-05-09
The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art by Call Number: Available Online & PN6725 .B57 2015ISBN: 9780813572345Publication Date: 2015-07-16
Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet Book 1 by Call Number: PN6728 .B523 C63 2016ISBN: 1302900536Publication Date: 2016-09-13
Black Women in Sequence: Re-inking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime by Call Number: Available OnlinePublication Date: 2015
The Good Fight: Taking a Stand Against Racism and Bigotry by Call Number: PN6726 .G66 2019ISBN: 9781645701767Publication Date: 2019-05-21
Icon: The Mothership Connection by Call Number: PN6727.M28 I38 2010ISBN: 1401227112Publication Date: 2010-06-08
March: Book Three by Call Number: E840.8 .L43 A3 2016ISBN: 9781603094023Publication Date: 2016-08-02
Milestone Compendium One by Call Number: PN6726 .M55 2021ISBN: 9781779513106Publication Date: 2022-02-01
Nubia and the Amazons by Call Number: PN6728.N83 W55 2022ISBN: 9781779516671Publication Date: 2022-09-06
The Other History of the DC Universe by Call Number: PN6728.O84 R53 2021ISBN: 9781779511973Publication Date: 2021-11-16
The Silence of Our Friends by Call Number: PN6727 .L67 S55 2018ISBN: 1250164982Publication Date: 2018-01-02
Unstable Masks: Whiteness and American Superhero Comics by Call Number: Available Online & PN6725 .U485 2020ISBN: 9780814214183Publication Date: 2020-01-07
Dickinson History Resources
How Can I Help?
Take Action
- 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice: A list from Medium.com
- Take Action: A List of Ways You Can Stand In Solidarity with the Black Community: A list from AdHoc with suggestions that include participating in a protest, contributing to a bail fund, donating to other initiatives, supporting minority-owned businesses, educating yourself, and signing a petition
- 100 Ways You Can Take Action Against Racism Right Now: A list from USA Today
- 5 Ways to Show Up for Racial Justice Today: A list from KQED
- Black Lives Matter Syllabus
- After George Floyd’s Killing, What Academics Can Do: Reflections from The Chronicle of Higher Education
- How to Be an Antiracist Educator: Five actions for teaching for an antiracist future from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
- Black and Asian-American Feminist Solidarities
Provide Financial Support
- Donate to a fund recommended by the Women of Color Summit or another charity or organization
- Refer to this guide for information about how to evaluate charities before you give
- Find and support Black-owned business in Central PA using the Central PA Black Business Directory
- Find and support Black-owned business near you using using the website Support Black Owned
Learn
- Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus: JSTOR Daily provides a variety of resources that show they ways that racism is embedded in American society.
- The COVID Racial Data Tracker: A collaboration between the COVID Tracking Project and the Antiracist Research & Policy Center, gathering the race and ethnicity data on COVID-19 in the United States
- Anti-Racism Resources for Students, Educators, and Citizens: From the University of Connecticut
- Answering White People’s Most Commonly Asked Questions about the Black Lives Matter Movement: A Q&A article from The Bold Italic
- Smithsonian's Talking About Race: Being Antiracist
- Anti-Racist Resource Guide by Victoria Alexander
- More information via Twitter
- Association of Black Women Historians YouTube
- Book Recommendations for Children
Databases
- Africa-wide Information This link opens in a new window Explore a multidisciplinary collection with extensive coverage of Africa and African studies, as well as information on a wide variety of topics from Africa-based publications and organizations. This collection contains citations for scholarly sources, including dissertations, research reports, and monographs. Coverage: contains primary sources. Some full text.
- Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa This link opens in a new window Access Southern African material, including periodicals, local newspaper reports, national publications, United Nations documents, photographs, speeches, interviews and more, that mostly covers the struggle for freedom during the period from 1950 to the first democratic elections in 1994, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Coverage: 1950 to 1994, contains primary sources. Some full text. This purchase was funded in part by the Mary Moser Memorial Library Fund.
- African American Archives This link opens in a new window Explore original historical documents pertaining to the history of African Americans, mostly in the United States, but also from the Colonial era and the West Indies. Coverage: contains primary sources. This purchase was a gift of Robert J. Weinstein, Dickinson College class of 1941.
- African American Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Explore a cross-searchable collection of historical content from leading African-American Newspapers. Titles included are: Atlanta Daily World (1931-2010), Chicago Defender (1910-1975), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2010), and Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988). Coverage: 1893-2010, but varies by title; contains primary sources. Full text. This purchase was made possible in part through a bequest of Eleanor Cogan (Honorary Doctor of Liberal Arts, 2003), library volunteer and longtime friend of the college.
- African American Historical Serials Collection This link opens in a new window Access newspapers and magazines, as well as reports and annuals from various African American organizations, including churches and social service agencies. This collection was developed in conjunction with the American Theological Library Association (ATLA). Coverage: 1829-1922, contains primary sources. Full text. This purchase was a gift of Robert J. Weinstein, Dickinson College class of 1941.
- Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window Access articles, documents, correspondence, proceedings, manuscripts, and literary works from African American activists who worked extensively to abolish slavery prior to the Civil War and had an international impact. Coverage: 1830-1865, contains primary sources. Full text.
- Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century (History Vault) This link opens in a new window Explore the records of major civil rights organizations, personal papers from activists and observers, and FBI files covering pivotal civil rights leaders and events, as well as legislation from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. This collection also includes other aspects of African American life in the 20th century, like religion, sports, education, and entertainment. It is cross-searchable with other collections via History Vault. Coverage: 20th century, contains primary sources. Full text.
- Black Liberation Army & The Program of Armed Struggle (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access FBI documents about Black Liberation Army (BLA) activities. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1970-1983, contains primary sources. Full text.
- Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window Explore scholarly essays, recent periodicals, historical newspaper articles, reference books that illuminate the Black experience from ancient Africa through modern times. Specific accessible resources include the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, Index to Black Periodicals, and the Black Literature Index. Coverage: varies by title, 1780 to present; contains primary sources. Some full text.
- Black Studies in Video This link opens in a new window View streaming films of award-winning documentaries, newsreels, interviews and archival footage surveying the evolution of black culture in the United States, including history, politics, art and culture, family structure, social and economic pressures, and gender relations. This access may be used for on-campus showings by student groups and co-curricular programs for which no admission is charged. Coverage: 20th century to present, contains primary sources. Full text.
- Oxford African American Studies Center (AASC) This link opens in a new window Access articles from Africana; the Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895; the Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present; Black Women in America, Second Edition; the Dictionary of African Biography; the Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought; the Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography; and African American National Biography, along with other key resources. Coverage: varies, contains primary sources. Full text.
- Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Enforcement of Federal Law in the South, 1871-1884 (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new window Access documents related to the efforts of district attorneys from southern states to uphold federal laws in the states that fought in the Confederacy or were Border States. Documents include their correspondence with the attorney general as well all other letters received by the attorney general from the states in question during that period, including the correspondence of marshals, judges, convicts, and concerned or aggrieved citizens. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via Archives Unbound. Coverage: 1871-1884, contains primary sources. Full text. This purchase was a gift of the Walter E. Beach Library Fund.
- Southern Life & African American History, 1775-1915, Plantations Records (History Vault) This link opens in a new window Access plantation records that document the business and culture of plantations in various parts of the South. This collection includes lists of slaves, records of bills and receipts, wills and other financial and personal documents. This collection is cross-searchable with other collections via History Vault. Coverage: 1775-1915, contains primary sources. Full text.
Books: Racism Against People of African Descent in the United States
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Call Number: Available Online & ZA4230 .N63 2018ISBN: 9781479849949Publication Date: 2018-02-20
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Call Number: E185.97 .L5 A3 1999ISBN: 0345350685Publication Date: 1992Temporary Online Access
Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly about Racism in America by Call Number: E185.61 .Y36 2018ISBN: 1538104059Publication Date: 2018-04-15
Between the World and Me by Call Number: E185.615 .C6335 2015ISBN: 0812993543Publication Date: 2015-07-14Temporary Online Access
Birthing Black Mothers by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9781478013501Publication Date: 2021-08-20
Citizen: An American Lyric by Call Number: PS3568 .A572 C58 2014ISBN: 1555976905Publication Date: 2014-10-07Temporary Online Access
The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself: Racial Myths and Our American Narratives by Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9781517914547Publication Date: 2023-01-31
The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North by Call Number: E185.61 .S9143 2019ISBN: 9781479820337Publication Date: 2019-04-23
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Call Number: E185.61 .A5438 2016ISBN: 1632864126Publication Date: 2016-05-31
