Recommended Reading

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Non-fiction Reads
Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority by Tom Burrell In this powerful examination of "the greatest propaganda campaign of all time"--the masterful marketing of black inferiority, aka the BI Complex--Burrell poses ten disturbing questions that will make black people look in the mirror and ask why, nearly 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, so many blacks still think and act like slaves.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander Argues that the War on Drugs and policies that deny convicted felons equal access to employment, housing, education and public benefits create a permanent under-caste based largely on race.  White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise Racial privilege shapes the lives of white Americans in every facet of life, from employment and education to housing and criminal justice. Using stories from his own life, Tim Wise shows that racism not only burdens people of color, but also benefits those who are "white like him" whether or not they’re actively racist.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson The founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama recounts his experiences as a lawyer working to assist those desperately in need, reflecting on his pursuit of the ideal of compassion in American justice.

Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II Paperback by Douglas A. Blackmon In this groundbreaking historical expose, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history—an “Age of Neoslavery” that thrived from the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II.

Fiction Books
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward Enduring a hardscrabble existence as the children of alcoholic and absent parents, four siblings from a coastal Mississippi town prepare their meager stores for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina while struggling with such challenges as a teen pregnancy and a dying litter of prize puppies.

Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas Approaching his thirty-fifth birthday estranged from his white Boston Brahmin wife and three children, an impoverished African-American construction worker evaluates his inner-city Boston childhood, the abuses he suffered at the hands of his parents, and the disparity between the promise of his intellectual potential and his real-world achievements.

Native Son by Richard Wright Traces the fall of a young black man in 1930s Chicago as his life loses all hope of redemption after he kills a white woman.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison A Black man's search for success and the American dream leads him out of college to Harlem and a growing sense of personal rejection and social invisibility.

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