Starting the Conversation: Adult Nonfiction

In our commitment to serve our community and foster the pursuit of knowledge, we offer these resources to help begin important conversations.

Showing 1 - 20 of 20  There are a total of 82 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "The accident of color"
Star rating for The accident of color
Description:
"A history of the first civil rights movement and the origins of black and white in America. When we hear "civil rights," we tend to think of the 1950s and 1960s activism that put an end to Jim Crow segregation laws. In The Accident of Color, Daniel Brook takes us to New Orleans and Charleston, where before the Civil War, free, biracial people-- sometimes referred to as "browns"-- exercised many rights of citizenship. During Reconstruction, as a black-...
Book cover for "Ain't I a woman"
Star rating for Ain't I a woman
Description:
"A classic work of feminist scholarship, Ain't I a Woman has become a must-read for all those interested in the nature of Black womanhood. Examining the impact of sexism on Black women during slavery, the devaluation of Back womanhood, Black male sexism, racism among feminists, and the Black woman's involvement with feminism, hooks attempts to move us beyond racist and sexist assumptions. The result is nothing short of groundbreaking, giving this...
Book cover for "Burden"
Star rating for Burden
Description:
"A harrowing true story of the modern Ku Klux Klan and an act of grace that shook a community in the Deep South. In 1996, the town of Laurens, South Carolina, was thrust into the international spotlight when a white supremacist named Michael Burden opened a museum celebrating the Ku Klux Klan on the community's main square. Journalists and protestors flooded the town, and hate groups rallied to the establishment's defense, dredging up the long history...
Book cover for "Chokehold"
Star rating for Chokehold
Description:
"Cops, politicians, and ordinary people are afraid of black men. The result is the Chokehold: laws and practices that treat every African American man like a thug. In this explosive new book, an African American former federal prosecutor shows that the system is working exactly the way it's supposed to. Black men are always under watch, and police violence is widespread--all with the support of judges and politicians. In his no-holds-barred style,...
Book cover for "Color blind"
Star rating for Color blind
Author:
Description:
Dunkel traces the rise of a Bismarck integrated squad and follows them through their ups and downs, focusing on the 1935 season, and the first National Semi-Pro Tournament in Wichita, Kansas -- a decade before Jackie Robinson broke into the Major Leagues!
Book cover for "The end of policing"
Star rating for The end of policing
Description:
Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression. Among activists, journalists, and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in combination. The core of the problem must be addressed: the nature of modern policing itself.
This book...
Book cover for "Jackson, 1964"
Star rating for Jackson, 1964
Book cover for "Motherhood so white"
Star rating for Motherhood so white
Description:
"In America, Mother = White. That's what Nefertiti, a single African American woman, discovered when she decided she wanted to adopt a Black baby boy out of the foster care system. Eager to finally join the motherhood ranks, Nefertiti was shocked when people started asking her why she wanted to adopt a 'crack baby' or said that she would never be able to raise a Black son on her own. She realized that American society saw motherhood through a white...
Book cover for "Not quite not white"
Star rating for Not quite not white
Book cover for "Race man"
Star rating for Race man
Description:
"An inspiring, historic collection of writings from one of America's most important civil rights leaders"--
Book cover for "Racism without Racists"
Star rating for Racism without Racists
Description:
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's acclaimed Racism without Racists documents how, beneath our contemporary conversation about race, there lies a full-blown arsenal of arguments, phrases, and stories that whites use to account for—and ultimately justify—racial inequalities. The fifth edition of this provocative book makes clear that color blind racism is as insidious now as ever. It features new material on our current racial climate, including...
Book cover for "The second coming of the KKK"
Star rating for The second coming of the KKK
Book cover for "A sin by any other name"
Star rating for A sin by any other name
Description:
An activist, pastor, and indirect descendant of Confederate general Robert E. Lee traces his upbringing in the American South with a name associated with the double-sided realities of honor, privilege, inequality, and the misinterpretation of Christian values.
Book cover for "Some of my best friends are Black"
Star rating for Some of my best friends are Black
Description:
Chronicles America's troubling relationship with race through four interrelated stories: the transformation of a once-racist Birmingham school system; a Kansas City neighborhood's fight against housing discrimination; the curious racial divide of the Madison Avenue ad world; and a Louisiana Catholic parish's forty-year effort to build an integrated church.
Book cover for "The song and the silence"
Star rating for The song and the silence
Description:
"'Have to keep that smile,' Booker Wright said in the 1966 NBC documentary Mississippi: A Self-Portrait. At the time, Wright spent his evenings waiting tables for whites at a local restaurant and his mornings running his own business. The ripple effect from his remarks would cement Booker as a civil rights icon because he did the unthinkable: before a national audience, Wright described what life truly was like for the black people of Greenwood, Mississippi"--Amazon.com....
Book cover for "Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex"
Star rating for Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex
Book cover for "Tell me who you are"
Star rating for Tell me who you are
Author:
Description:
"An eye-opening exploration of race in America In this deeply inspiring book, Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi recount their experiences talking to people from all walks of life about race and identity on a cross-country tour of America. Spurred by the realization that they had nearly completed high school without hearing any substantive discussion about racism in school, the two young women deferred college admission for a year to collect first-person...
Book cover for "Trouble I've seen"
Star rating for Trouble I've seen
Book cover for "Where do we go from here"
Star rating for Where do we go from here
Description:
African-American leader outlines his principles for nonviolent direct action in the struggle for civil rights in the United States today. "This is a book about power - specifically, the power of a nonviolent army of determined Negroes who, with a smaller band of committed whites, have concluded that equality is not given but is taken, and that nothing but relentless pressure will ever achieve full citizenship for America's Negroes. 'Power, properly...
Book cover for "White guilt"
Star rating for White guilt