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Anti-Racism Resources

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Library is taking action to combat racism and increase equity, diversity and inclusion. Here are some of the changes we’ve been instituting:

  • Conducting diversity audits in both the Adult and Youth departments. This entails examining every item in the collection to look for biases, racism and stereotypical tropes. Additionally, an audit tells us what we are missing in the collection and provides an opportunity to add materials of diversity where we are lacking.
  • Extending library access to those without a home or in temporary shelters with Temporary Visitors’ Library cards.
  • Creating a blind application process for job openings to eliminate bias.
Books

Books

American Whitelash: A Changing Nation and the Cost of Progress by Wesley Lowery

The Black Agenda: Bold Solutions for a Broken System edited by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman

Blunt Instruments: Recognizing Racist Cultural Infrastructure in Memorials, Museums, and Patriotic Practices by Kristin Ann Hass

Better, Not Bitter by Yusef Salaam

Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby

Do Better by Rachel Ricketts

Faithful Anti-Racism by Christina Edmondson

It Could Happen Here: Why America is Tipping from Hate to the Unthinkable–and How We Can Stop It by Jonathan Greenblatt

Not Quite Not White by Sharmila Sen

Social Justice Parenting: How to Raise Compassionate, Anti-Racist, Justice-Minded Kids in an Unjust World by Traci Baxley

Anti-Racist Ally: An Introduction to Action and Activism by Sophie Williams

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

Read This to Get Smarter: About Race, Class, Gender, Disability and More by Blair Imani

Reading Writing and Racism: Disrupting Whiteness in Teacher Education and in the Classroom by Bree Picower

Righteous Troublemakers: untold stories of the social justice movement in America by Reverend Al Sharpton

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds

The Talk by Darrin Bell

24 Hours in Charlottesville: An Oral History of the Stand Against White Supremacy by Nora Neus

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho

The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

The Wake Up by Michelle Mijung Kim

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum

 

 

Organizations

Organizations

ACLU  (American Civil Liberties Union)

Anti Defamation League

Anti-Discrimination League

Black Lives Matter

Center for Anti-Racist Research 

Center for Racial Justice in Education

Enrich Chicago (An Arts-Led Movement to Undo Racism)

Equal Justice Initiative

FAPAC  (Federal Asian Pacific American Council)

Federal Bureau of Investigation on Civil Rights and Hate crimes

NAACP

 

Podcasts

Podcasts

1619 (New York Times)

Code Switch (NPR)

Momentum (Race Forward)

Seeing White (Scene on Radio)

 

 


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