Racial Justice in America: Some Reading Recommendations

A new display at the W&L Law Library features books recommended by the Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project.

The eleven titles include non-fiction, fiction, history, and biography, and are recognized as valuable in helping law school communities understand and address the complex issues of systemic racism in our society and criminal justice system.

The Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project was formed in the spring of 2020 by law school deans and members of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS):

By creating a space for our collective voices as leaders of law schools to engage our institutions in the fight for justice and equality, we strive to focus our teaching, scholarship, service, activism, programming, and initiatives on strategies to eradicate racism.

Find more information and suggested resources at the Project’s website, https://www.aals.org/antiracist-clearinghouse.

Also on display are titles from the W&L Law Library collection that contribute context, insight, and proposals in the ongoing nationwide discussion of racial justice in America.

All titles are linked below to WorldCat.org where you can find them at a library near you.

Law Deans Antiracist Clearinghouse Project Recommended Books

• The Fire Next Time (1963), by James Baldwin

• From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (10th ed. 2020), by John Hope Franklin and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham

• Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981), by bell hooks

• Between the World and Me (2015), by Ta-Nehisi Coates

• The Origin of Others (2017), by Toni Morrison

• The History of White People (2010), by Nell Irvin Painter

• The Meaning of Freedom (2012), by Angela Y. Davis

• The Space Traders (2001), by Derrick Bell (in Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, Sheree R. Thomas ed.)

• How to Be an Antiracist (2019), by Ibram X. Kendi

• Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower (2018), by Brittney Cooper

• Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844–1944 (1993), by J. Clay Smith, Jr.

W&L Law Library Recommended Books

• And We Are Not Saved (1987), by Derrick Bell

• Black and Blue: How African Americans Judge the U.S. Legal System (2018), by James L. Gibson and Michael J. Nelson

• Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor (2020), by Layla F. Saad

• So You Want to Talk About Race (2019), by Ijeoma Oluo

• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism (2018), by Robin DiAngelo

• Unequal Under Law: Race in the War on Drugs (2007), by Doris Marie Provine

• Enforcing the Equal Protection Clause: Congressional Power, Judicial Doctrine, and Constitutional Law (2015), by William D. Araiza