Justice Ministry

• 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 last several years, in person and on Zoom, the Justice Ministry has lead discussions of several books and films on the topic of historical and persistent racism in the US. There are many books and films, both fiction and nonfiction, that can enlighten and educate about racism and other systemic injustices in America. With the hope that we can be agents of change and bring justice to our land, here are some suggested books and films to explore!  

Historic Origins and Contemporary Racial Division

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
• Dear White Friend: The Realities of Race, the Power of Relationships and Our Path to Equity by Mel Gravely
• How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
• How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi 
• I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin; also a 2016 documentary film 
• I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown  
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo  
• Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi  
• The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson  
• White Awake: An Honest look at What It Means to Be White by Daniel Hill
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo  
• White Like Me: Reflections On Race From A Privileged Son by Tim Wise; also a documentary film “Race, Racism, and White Privilege in America”
• White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson

Economic and Social Policy

• Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City – Matthew Desmond
• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein; also a short animated film “Segregated by Design” https://www.segregatedbydesign.com/
• The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs All of Us and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee
• A Reckoning in Boston – 2022 documentary film from PBS Independent Lens https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/a-reckoning-in-boston/

American Legal System

• Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration by Emily Bazelon 
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson; also a 2019 film 
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
• The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton and Lara Love Hardin

Youth Violence

• Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge
• Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence by Shane Claiborn and Michael Martin
• The Hate You Give – Young Adult fiction by Angie Thomas; also a 2018 film
• Long Way Down – Young Adult fiction by Jason Reynolds

Sports

• Things That Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett and Dave Zirin; also a Young Adult version.

Christianity

• The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby
• The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone  
• America’s Original Sin by Jim Wallis 
• Sacred Resistance: A Practical Guide to Christian Witness and Dissent by Ginger Gaines-Cirelli  

Intersectional Feminism

• Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper
• The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self Love by Sonya Renee Taylor
• White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad
• Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene Carruthers
• Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
• Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That the Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall
• You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson
• We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib
• Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke
• Prey Tell: Why We Silence Women Who Tell the Truth and How Everyone Can Speak Up by Tiffany Bluhm
• The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth by Beth Allison Barr
• Touched: For Survivors of Sexual Assault Like Me Who Have Been Hurt by Church Folk and for Those Who Will Care by Shanell T. Smith
• The #MeToo Reckoning: Facing the Church’s Complicity in Sexual Abuse and Misconduct by Ruth Everyhart