I have read these books both on my own and in my classroom. Many of my juniors say that reading about slavery from textbooks versus from someone who was a slave is incompatible. The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass is a favorite in my classroom because of its ability to tell you history without distorting reality. Each of these books will give you great insight and accurate accounts about America’s true history and current events. You will see things through a new lens and hopefully be enlightened enough to assist in changing policies that no longer serve us or enacting ones that do.
- The Narrative Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (slavery through a male perspective)
- Incidents In The Life of A Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs (slavery through a female perspective)
- Race Matters by Cornell West (explains why race is an issue in America)
- The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein (learn about some of the roots of systemic racism)
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (modern perspective about being Black in America)
- Born A Crime by Trevor Noah (Apartheid with accessible language for students)
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (Injustices of our legal system)
- Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi (America’s History Retold with more critical information)
- How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram Kendi (How to fight racism)
- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (Injustices of our legal system)
Noemi Gonzalez 