Antiracist Resources

The Bethlehem Area Public Library is committed to actively supporting essential conversations and actions to confront racism in America.

This page will feature antiracist resources available in our collections, links to external resources, and information about library programs that promote antiracist conversation within our community and with our patrons.

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In our collections

Antiracist reading

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (Author), Karen Chilton
Tears we Cannot Stop, by Michael Eric Dyson
We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta Nehisi Coates
Between the World and Me by Ta Nehisi Coates
White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son by Tim Wise
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance
Educated by Tara Westover
Race Matters, 25th Anniversary by Cornel West
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, edited by Jesmyn Ward
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces by Radley Balko
Have Black Lives Ever Mattered? by Mumia Abu-Jamal
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele
A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis
How We Fight White Supremacy by Akiba Solomon and Kenrya Rankin
On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope by Deray McKesson
Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F Saad

Black authors, thinkers, and creators

“Reading Anti-Racist Nonfiction Is a Start. But Don’t Underestimate the Power of Black Fiction,” Jasmine Guillory, writing for Time Magazine

N.K. Jemisin

One of the most important writers working today, you simply fall in to Jemisin’s worlds, care desperately for her characters, and live alongside them as they search, love, struggle and survive. The first author to win the Hugo Award (honoring the best of science fiction and fantasy) three times consecutively, for each volume in her Broken Earth trilogy.

How Long Til Black Future Month? (Overdrive)
The City We Became (Overdrive)

Octavia Butler

Spare and haunting, like a good friend telling you a strange true story by the fireside. Her writing about writing (including essays in Bloodchild) is just as inspiring as her fiction.

Jasmine Guillory

Guillory writes modern romances you just want to hug. Smart, sexy, and so much fun.

Toni Morrison

To read Toni Morrison, through her fiction or her non-fiction, is to encounter a great mind, and to have your own mind made richer.

Margo Jefferson

Theater critic and culture writer Jefferson’s memoir, about growing up in the 1950s in the upper crust of Black Chicago society–her father was head of pediatrics at a hospital, her mother was a socialite–is as beautifully written as it is illuminating about privilege and race.

Negroland: A memoir

Colson Whitehead

Whether he’s writing about zombies, the fleeting summer vacations of youth, elevator repair, or putting a postmodern spin on the Underground Railroad, Whitehead is always inventive, always humane, always himself.

Films and documentaries

On Kanopy

I Am Not Your Negro, written by James Baldwin, dir. by Raoul Peck
Moonlight, dir. by Barry Jenkins
Within Our Gates, dir. by Oscar Micheaux
Daughters of the Dust, dir. by Julie Dash
Slavery By Another Name, dir. by Samuel D. Pollard

In the catalog

Boycott, Directed by Clark Johnson
Do the Right Thing, dir. by Spike Lee
Fences, written by August Wilson, dir. by Denzel Washigton
Fruitvale Station, dir. by Ryan Coogler
Get Out, dir. by Jordan Peele
If Beale Street Could Talk, dir. by Barry Jenkins
Malcolm X, dir. by Spike Lee
Selma, dir. by Ava DuVernay

Available via Inter-Library Loan (email interlibraryloan@bapl.org to request)

Blackout, dir. by Jerry LaMothe
Middle of Nowhere, dir. by Ava DuVernay
Pariah, dir. by Dee Rees

Upcoming programs

The Roots of Anti-Racism: A Reading Group

A 4-session reading group offered in partnership with Lehigh University. This group invites community members to examine the historical roots of anti-racist thought and action. We will discuss poetry, essays, speeches, and personal narratives by Black writers of the 19th century through today. Including works by W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, and Audre Lorde, we will learn together about the roots of anti-racism.
Register for each individual session today!

Past programs

Courageous Conversations: Stamped from the Beginning

A 5-month discussion series focused on Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Watch conversations from the series on BAPL’s Facebook

Dialogues on Racial Justice: An Introductory Workshop Series on Issues of Systemic Racism in the United States

A 4-week workshop covering how racism is constructed and maintained, historical contexts of systemic oppression and police brutality, and the progress towards equitable reform for restorative justice. Taught by Linda Wiggins-Chavis; thank you, Ms. Wiggins-Chavis!
If you are interested in hearing more about this program or contacting Linda Wiggins-Chavis, please email Janine at jcarambot@bapl.org.

Read about the first session, Race and Racism: The Construct of Race and How Racism is Maintained, in the Southsider

Watch the third session, Police Brutality: A Historical Perspective, on BAPL’s YouTube channel

Community suggested resources from Dialogues on Social Justice
- Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon (nonfiction)
- The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone
- The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein (nonfiction)
- Slavery By Another Name, dir. by Samuel D. Pollard (documentary)
- ‘The Strange Story Of The Man Behind Strange Fruit’
  by Elizabeth Blair for NPR Morning Edition (2012)
- ‘The Philadelphia Race Riot (1918)’
  by Will Mack for Blackpast.org (2017)
- ‘Race riots in Philadelphia during the 1919 Red Summer’
- ‘MOVE: Or When the Philly Police Dropped a Bomb on a Residential Neighborhood’
  Stuff You Should Know podcast episode (2019)
- ‘The Long Hot Summer’
  NPR’s Throughline podcast episode (2020)
- Felony Disenfranchisement Laws Map
  ACLU.org (accessed July 2020)
- Criminal Disenfranchisement Laws PDF – State by State Breakdown
  BrennanCenter.org (updated June 2020)
- The Childhood Opportunity Gap Expanded Data Visualizations
  Diversitydatakids.org (2019)

BAPL Virtual Film Club for July 2020: The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Available to stream on Kanopy)

Read a review of The Last Black Man in San Francisco in The Southsider!

The Clearing: Movement towards Communities of Compassion

A Dancing Mindfulness Gathering with Dr. Alisha Tatem. Thank you, Dr. Tatem, for leading this program!
If you are interested in hearing more about this program or contacting Dr. Tatem, please email Janine at jcarambot@bapl.org.