Note: This list is simply a compilation of relevant books I’ve read since 2014, when I began my own journey of being more intentional about understanding race, racism, and systemic injustice. None of these are academic works nor have I read them in the context of a course of study. I am not an expert in this field and I don’t claim that these are the best books on the subject, but every one of them has something to add to the conversation. I divided the list into headings so that if you’re interested in a particular genre you can start there. I will keep adding to it as I read more and will try to make time to annotate it. I’m interested in what you think and in what you are reading, too! Email me at pamela@churchofstmartin.org –Blessings, Pamela+
Reading List on Race, Racism, and Systemic Inequality
Essays and Memoirs
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
- Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
- Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
- We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union
United States History
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
- White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
- These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore
- An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz
- The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Fiction
- In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende
- The Sellout by Paul Beatty
- Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- Sula by Toni Morrison
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (YA)
- On the Come Up by Angie Thomas (YA)
- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
Race and the Church
- Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God by Kaitlin B. Curtice
- Radical Welcome: Embracing God, the Other, and the Spirit of Transformation by Stephanie Spellers
Doing the Work
- So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Race by Robin DiAngelo
