Justice Ministry

As a follow up to the Lent 2021: Leaning into Justice Challenge, the Justice Ministry of Hyde Park Community UMC wants to help people engage in reforming the criminal justice system and abolishing the death penalty. We will be hosting a discussion via Zoom of death row exoneree Anthony Ray Hinton’s book “The Sun Does Shine”on Monday, April 26th from 7:00-8:30p and Abolishing Ohio’s Death Penalty’s workshop by Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center on Monday, May 3rd from 7:00-8:30p. We encourage you to attend one or both events

• Register here for the book discussion of Anthony Ray Hinton’s book “The Sun Does Shine” on April 26th.

• Join the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center (IJPC) for Abolishing Ohio’s Death Penalty’s workshop, an engaging event on history, current status, and need for abolition of the Ohio’s death penalty. Hear from IJPC’s executive director and other voices of experience with time for small group discussion and Q&A. Register here for the workshop on May 3rd from 7:00-8:30p via Zoom. 

• Get to know Cincinnati’s Black entrepreneurs and patronize their businesses! A great place to start would be here: https://thevoiceofblackcincinnati.com

• Get in tune with what’s happening in the Black community by subscribing to the weekly Cincinnati Herald! “News you can’t get anywhere else.” $30 for a year https://thecincinnatiherald.com/subscribe/

Click here to download a printable pdf of our reading list.

Over the summer of 2020, the Justice Ministry discussed two books: White Like Me by Tim Wise and How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. There are many books and films that can enlighten and educate us to the historical background of racism in America with the hope that we can be agents of change and bring justice to our land.

Here are a few more to choose from!

• America’s Original Sin – Jim Wallis
• Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents – Isabel Wilkerson
• Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration – Emily Bazelon

• I’m Not Your Negro – James Baldwin (also a 2016 documentary film)
• I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness – Austin Channing Brown

• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption – Bryan Stevenson (also a 2019 film)

• Sacred Resistance: A Practical Guide to Christian Witness and Dissent – Ginger Gaines-Cirelli

• So You Want to Talk About Race – Ijeoma Oluo
• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America -Ibram X. Kendi

• The Color of Law – Richard Rothstein
• The Cross and the Lynching Tree – James H. Cone
• The Hate You Give – Angie Thomas (also a 2018 film)
• The New Jim Crow – Michelle Alexander
• The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row – Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin

• The Warmth of Other Suns – Isabel Wilkerson
• Things That Make White People Uncomfortable – Michael Bennett
• White Awake: An Honest look at What It Means to Be White – Daniel Hill
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism – Robin DiAngelo

• White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide – Carol Anderson