25 Books About Racism to Read in 2024
VIA MERCHANT
For fans of: The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
Published in 2021, How the Word Is Passed is a gorgeously written and meticulously researched look at historical sites that are fundamental to the history of slavery and therefore fundamental to the history of the United States.
“Every monument has a story, and Clint Smith travels to some of the most famous United States monuments to reckon with the United States’s legacy of slavery,” says Booktokker Carmen Alvarez. “The underlying question of this work is: Who deserves the monuments we build as a society? As both a journalist and poet, Clint’s beautifully lyrical prose and journalistic savvy for detail attempt to answer this question, as well as examine the collective memory monuments.”
VIA MERCHANT
For fans of: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
In 1989, Bryan Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative, which provides legal representation to those who most need it, including those who couldn’t otherwise afford it and those who may have been wrongly convicted. Published in 2013, Just Mercy recounts the organization’s beginnings through a successful campaign to challenge the cruel practice of sentencing minors to life in prison.
Central to Stevenson’s understanding of mercy and justice was the case of Walter McMillian, a Black man who was not only given the death penalty for murder, although he maintained he was innocent, but also placed on death row in 1987, before the trial even began. Part biography, part memoir, Just Mercy is a compelling call to action against mass incarceration. “Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done,” Stevenson writes, explaining why he does this work and never gives up hope.
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Sources:
- Carmen Alvarez, founder of @tomesandtextiles; email interview, October 2024
- Sharon Hsu, senior editor at Goodreads; email interview, October 2024
- Tania Israel, PhD, professor of counseling psychology, associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of Facing the Fracture; email interview, October 2024
- Michelle Yang, mental health advocate and author; email interview, October 2024
