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Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an important time to keep educating yourself on racism in the US.

Black literature experts shared their top nonfiction essay and article picks on race.

The list includes "A Report from Occupied Territory" by James Baldwin.

In the weeks after the killings of Ahmaud Aubrey, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, many Americans rushed to purchase books on race and executives scrambled to hold town halls on racism. The spiked interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion was promising, but it needs to continue if long-term change is to happen, consultants told Insider.

Part of that process includes educating yourself. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a holiday dedicated to remembering the Civil Rights leader, is an important time to do that. Insider asked Black literary and historical experts to share their favorite works of journalism on race by Black authors. Here are the top pieces they recommended everyone read, including a piece by King himself.
This article was originally published in February 2021.

"Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases" and "The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States" by Ida B. Wells

In 1892, investigative journalist, activist, and NAACP founding member Ida B. Wells began to publish her research on lynching in a pamphlet titled "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases." Three years later, she followed up with more research and detail in "The Red Record."

Shirley Moody-Turner, associate Professor of English and African American Studies at Penn State University recommended everyone read these two texts, saying they hold "many parallels to our own moment."

"In these two pamphlets, Wells exposes the pervasive use of lynching and white mob violence against African American men and women. She discredits the myths used by white mobs to justify the killing of African Americans and exposes Northern and international audiences to the growing racial violence and terror perpetrated against Black people in the South in the years following the Civil War," Moody-Turner told Business Insider.
Read "Southern Horrors" here and "The Red Record" here>>

"The Case for Reparations" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates, best-selling author and national correspondent for The Atlantic, made waves when he published his 2014 article "The Case for Reparations," in which he called for "collective introspection" on reparations for Black Americans subjected to centuries of racism and violence.

"In his now famed essay for The Atlantic, journalist, author, and essayist, Ta-Nehisi Coates traces how slavery, segregation, and discriminatory racial policies underpin ongoing and systemic economic and racial disparities," Moody-Turner said.

"Coates provides deep historical context punctuated by individual and collective stories that compel us to reconsider the case for reparations," she added.
Read it here>>

"The Idea of America" by Nikole Hannah-Jones and the "1619 Project" by The New York Times

In "The Idea of America," Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones traces America's history from 1619 onward, the year slavery began in the US. She explores how the history of slavery is inseparable from the rise of America's democracy in her essay that's part of The New York Times' larger "1619 Project," which is the outlet's ongoing project created in 2019 to re-examine the impact of slavery in the US.

"In her unflinching look at the legacy of slavery and the underside of American democracy and capitalism, Hannah-Jones asks, 'what if America understood, finally, in this 400th year, that we [Black Americans] have never been the problem but the solution,'" said Moody-Turner, who recommended readers read the whole "1619 Project" as well.
Read "The Idea of America" here and the rest of the "1619 Project here>>

"Many Thousands Gone" by James Baldwin

In "Many Thousands Gone," James Arthur Baldwin, American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist lays out how white America is not ready to fully recognize Black people as people. It's a must read, according to Jimmy Worthy II, assistant professor of English at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

"Baldwin's essay reminds us that in America, the very idea of Black persons conjures an amalgamation of specters, fears, threats, anxieties, guilts, and memories that must be extinguished as part of the labor to forget histories deemed too uncomfortable to remember," Worthy said.
Read it here>>

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr.

On April 13 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. and other Civil Rights activists were arrested after peaceful protest in Birmingham, Alabama. In jail, King penned an open letter about how people have a moral obligation to break unjust laws rather than waiting patiently for legal change. In his essay, he expresses criticism and disappointment in white moderates and white churches, something that's not often focused on in history textbooks, Worthy said.

"King revises the perception of white racists devoted to a vehement status quo to include white moderates whose theories of inevitable racial equality and silence pertaining to racial injustice prolong discriminatory practices," Worthy said.
Read it here>>

"The First White President" by Ta-Nehisi Coates

This essay from the award-winning journalist's book " We Were Eight Years in Power," details how Trump, during his presidency, employed the notion of whiteness and white supremacy to pick apart the legacy of the nation's first Black president, Barack Obama.

Moore said it was crucial reading to understand the current political environment we're in.
Read it here>>

"Just Walk on By" by Brent Staples

In this essay, Brent Staples, author and Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer for The New York Times, hones in on the experience of racism against Black people in public spaces, especially on the role of white women in contributing to the view that Black men are threatening figures.

For Crystal M. Fleming, associate professor of sociology and Africana Studies at SUNY Stony Brook, his essay is especially relevant right now.

"We see the relevance of his critique in the recent incident in New York City, wherein a white woman named Amy Cooper infamously called the police and lied, claiming that a Black man - Christian Cooper - threatened her life in Central Park. Although the experience that Staples describes took place decades ago, the social dynamics have largely remained the same," Fleming told Business Insider.
Read it here>>

More: Features Strategy Voices of Color Careers

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13 eye-opening essays from Black writers to read to understand America's problems with race

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Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an important time to keep educating yourself on racism in the US. Black literature experts shared their top nonfiction essay and article picks on race. The list includes "A Report from Occupied Territory" by James Baldwin.

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"The Politics of Trauma offers somatics with a social analysis. This book is for therapists and social activists who understand that trauma healing is not just for individuals--and that social change is not just for movement builders. Just as health practitioners need to consider the societal factors underlying trauma, so too must activists understand the physical and mental impacts of trauma on their own lives and the lives of the communities with whom they organize . . ."

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"Somatics is a freedom-inducing framework. The central idea is that the natural living body--with its sensations, memories and emotions, triggers and pleasures--is a complex system that carries our whole lives, including trauma and healing, boundaries and risks, patterns and transformation. Staci Haines is a central teacher weaving the somatics lineage with social justice and with being in the body in community, increasing the possibility that we can be in collective bodies of justice. This book maps the cycles of healing that shift us from being victims of systemic injustice to being shapers of constant change and liberatory systems."
-- adrienne maree brown, author of Emergent Strategy and
"If I've discovered anything in several decades of social-justice work, it's that the body never lies. If we can embrace her, change can happen. Grounding in my body, not just in my words, has turned out to be a critical source of humility and courage, preconditions for any significant change. The ideas and tools in The Politics of Trauma allow us to listen to our bodies, and then make choices about what we do rather than constantly reacting to what we think are external pressures. A mustread for anyone trying to lead anything."
--Rinku Sen, activist and author of Stir It Up

" The Politics of Trauma is an essential read for every 'woke' person responding to this moment in history's calling. Movement leaders know firsthand the level of trauma we have experienced in our personal lives, our families, communities, and across generations; and we often carry out our work at great personal expense. Haines brings a political clarity desperately needed and reminds us that we must courageously embark on our own healing journey, grounded in racial, economic, and gender justice. Only then will we be able to live whole, vibrant, resilient lives and bring about the transformational change we seek in society."
--Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center
" The Politics of Trauma is a bold and important response to a long-existing split between those who work on individual change and those working to change the institutions of society. The profound gift of Staci's book is that rather than diagnosing what doesn't work, it offers us a remedy: Somatics--a body-centered approach to transformation that fully integrates the healing of individuals with the creating of a more just and equitable society."
--ROBERT GASS, EdD, co-founder of the Rockwood Leadership Institute and the Social Transformation Project

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The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing, and Social Justice a book by Staci Haines, Richard Strozzi-Heckler, and Ai-Jen Poo

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An essential tool for healers, therapists, activists, and survivors of trauma who are interested in a justice-centered approach to somatic transformation The Politics of Trauma offers somatics with a social analysis. This book is for therapists and social activists who understand that trauma healing is not just for individuals--and that social change is not just for movement builders.

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The urgency of intersectionality | Kimberlé Crenshaw | TED

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Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex:A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics

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Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex:A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics

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Academic article by Kimberle Crenshaw

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You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience

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You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience

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"Burke and Brown are the perfect pair to usher in this stark, potent collection of essays on Black shame and healing. Along with the anthology contributors, they create a space to recognize and process the trauma of white supremacy, a space to be vulnerable and affirm the fullness of Black love and Black life."

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Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.

Contributions by Kiese Laymon, Imani Perry, Laverne Cox, Jason Reynolds, Austin Channing Brown, and more

It started as a text between two friends.

Tarana Burke, founder of the 'me too.' Movement, texted researcher and writer Brené Brown to see if she was free to jump on a call. Brené assumed that Tarana wanted to talk about wallpaper. They had been trading home decorating inspiration boards in their last text conversation so Brené started scrolling to find her latest Pinterest pictures when the phone rang.

But it was immediately clear to Brené that the conversation wasn't going to be about wallpaper. Tarana's hello was serious and she hesitated for a bit before saying, "Brené, you know your work affected me so deeply, but as a Black woman, I've sometimes had to feel like I have to contort myself to fit into some of your words. The core of it rings so true for me, but the application has been harder."

Brené replied, "I'm so glad we're talking about this. It makes sense to me. Especially in terms of vulnerability. How do you take the armor off in a country where you're not physically or emotionally safe?"

Long pause.

"That's why I'm calling," said Tarana. "What do you think about working together on a book about the Black experience with vulnerability and shame resilience?"

There was no hesitation.

Burke and Brown are the perfect pair to usher in this stark, potent collection of essays on Black shame and healing. Along with the anthology contributors, they create a space to recognize and process the trauma of white supremacy, a space to be vulnerable and affirm the fullness of Black love and Black life.

Product Details

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About the Author

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You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience a book by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.

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"Project NIA — “nia” meaning “with purpose” in Swahili—is a grassroots organization that works to end the arrest, detention, and incarceration of children and young adults by promoting restorative and transformative justice practices."

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What's Happening Now

Introducing Project NIA's first Artist's Residency...

Project NIA's mission is to dramatically reduce the reliance on arrest, detention, and incarceration for addressing youth violence and to promote the use of restorative and transformative practices, a concept that relies on community-based safety responses. Beyond all of the words, what we are after is to end youth incarceration, a practice that we consider to be harmful, immoral, and counter-productive. When our ultimate goal is bluntly stated in this way, it becomes more difficult to win a majority of the public over to our side of the argument. People begin asking all sorts of questions like "surely you believe that some children and young adults belong in prison?" or "Is it realistic to close all youth prisons?" These are valid questions and we engage them.

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What's Happening Now Project NIA's mission is to dramatically reduce the reliance on arrest, detention, and incarceration for addressing youth violence and to promote the use of restorative and transformative practices, a concept that relies on community-based safety responses.

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Experiencing and witnessing racism in any of its forms has traumatic effects that can build up with time and repetition. Resources to help Black people and other people of color care for their mental health through the trauma of racism are listed below.
Organizations

Books

Online Resources, Apps, and Social Media

Decolonizing Therapy Instagram and Twitter : Resources on healing ancestral trauma compiled by Dr. Jennifer Mullan, clinical psychologist and community organizer.

Depressed While Black: An online community, blog, and video hub for Black mental health.

Grief is a Direct Impact of Racism: Eight Ways to Support Yourself: An article by global health professor Roberta K. Timothy.

Healing in Action: A Toolkit for Black Lives Matter Healing Justice & Direct Action: A guide by Black Lives Matter Healing Justice Working Group on preparing for action, self-care during an action, and restoration and resilience after an action.

Melanated Social Work Instagram and podcast: Mental health resources, information, and discussions created and curated by four men of color in the social work field.

Mental Health Tips for African Americans to Heal after Collectively Witnessing an Injustice: A self-care video by Brandon J. Johnson, M.H.S.

Racial Trauma and Self-Care in Tragedy: A resource list by University of North Texas.

Racism and Violence: How to Help Kids Handle the News: A conversation between Kenya Hameed, PsyD and Jamie Howard, PhD of Child Mind Institute.

Representation Matters in Social Work: We Need More Black Therapists by Relando Thompkins-Jones

Sharing Hope: Speaking with African Americans about Mental Health an hour-long presentation that can help increase mental health awareness in African American communities by addressing a number of important topics | NAMI

The Safe Place : A minority mental health app geared specifically towards the black community.

44 Mental Health Resources for Black People Trying to Survive in This Country | By Zahra Barnes, Self Magazine

The Impact of Racism & Trauma on Emotional and Mental Health
Learn about the mental health disparities experienced by the Black community as a result of systemic racism.
Resources for Mental Health Providers

Treating Mental Health in the Black Community Learn how you can better serve Black clients from therapists and trainers Donna Oriowo, PhD, LICSW, Shawan Worsley, PhD, LMFT, LPCC, and Michael Jones, EdS, LPC-S. Hosted by Ben Caldwell, PsyD, LMFT and Education Director at SimplePractice

Improving Cultural Competency for Behavioral Health Professionals (Free Online Training) | HHS

Understanding Racial Trauma-Informed Interventions | Alexandra Pajak, LCSW, Social Work Today

Uncovering the Trauma of Racism: New Tools for Clinicians | Dr. Monnica T. Williams, Psychology Today

Taking Action Against Racism
Being antiracist requires ongoing, often difficult work. It's normal and okay to make mistakes and experience feelings of guilt, discomfort, and sadness during this process. Remember that the work you're doing is important and necessary, and to push through tough emotions.
Learn

13th: A documentary directed by Ava Duvernay on how the country's history of racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration in America.

5 Tips for Being an Ally: A video by Francesca Ramsey (@chescaleigh).

Being Antiracist: Information and activities from the National Museum of African American History & Culture.

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer Eberhardt

How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Ijeoma Oluo: "So You Want to Talk About Race" | Talks at Google: A video of a talk given by bestselling author of So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo.

Implicit Association Test (IAT) : An assessment to uncover subconscious biases you may hold.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemptionby Bryan Stevenson

Mindful of Race: Transforming Racism from the Inside Outby Ruth King

Mona Chalabi: An Instagram account with visual representations of data on social issues, including race.

Racism and Violence: How to Help Kids Handle the News: A conversation between Kenya Hameed, PsyD and Jamie Howard, PhD of Child Mind Institute.

Stamped from the Beginning The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

The Anatomy of White Guilt: A paper from the Unitarian Universalist Association.

The Comprehensive Guide to Anti-Racism Resources: A guide for anti-racism supports - articles, videos, podcasts, books, films, resources for parents, and more - created by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein.

The Conscious Kid: An Instagram account and Patreon site with information on parenting and education through a critical race lens.

The Cycle of Liberation: A chapter written by Bobbie Harro for Readings for Diversity and Social Justice.

The Cycle of Socialization: A chapter written by Bobbie Harro for Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice.

The Emotional Lives of White People : A paper from the Unitarian Universalist Association.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindnessby Michelle Alexander

The Racial Healing Handbook: Practical Activities to Help You Challenge Privilege, Confront Systemic Racism, and Engage in Collective Healing: A book by Dr. Anneliese A. Singh.

Toward a Racially Just Workplace: A Harvard Business Review article by Laura Morgan Roberts & Anthony J. Mayo.

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele

Teach and Take Action

Support and Donate
Organizations Supporting Black Mental Health
Organizations Working Toward Racial Equity and Social Justice
To suggest additional materials and resources, please reach out to info@psychhub.com Find a comprehensive library of free mental health videos that may help to further educate on topics of mental health, substance use, and suicide prevention at www.psychhub.com

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Experiencing and witnessing racism in any of its forms has traumatic effects that can build up with time and repetition. Resources to help Black people and other people of color care for their mental health through the trauma of racism are listed below.

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Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness

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Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness

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"In Belly of the Beast, Da'Shaun Harrison--a fat, Black, disabled, and nonbinary trans writer--offers an incisive, fresh, and precise exploration of anti-fatness as anti-Blackness. They foreground the state-sanctioned murders of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people in historical analysis. Policing, disenfranchisement, and invisibilizing of fat Black men and trans and nonbinary masculine people are pervasive, insidious ways that anti-fat anti-Blackness shows up in everyday life. Fat people can be legally fired in 49 states for being fat; they're more likely to be houseless. Fat people die at higher rates from misdiagnosis or nontreatment; fat women are more likely to be sexually assaulted. And at the intersections of fatness, Blackness, disability, and gender, these abuses are exacerbated."

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Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property.

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Radical Political Action | A Reading List

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Radical Political Action | A Reading List

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"... Robin D. G. Kelley advocates for a rebirth of grassroots political education. A forum contributor, Derecka Purnell, informed us that some groups of student-activists are already doing exactly that. At Harvard Law School, a group called Reclaim Harvard Law has occupied one of the school's lounges and is holding weekly political education sessions there. Purnell shared with us her list of the texts that have been circulating in the group"

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A primer in the history and practice of radical black politics.
Editors' Note: In the Critical Reading (to Have and to Hold): Black Study, Black Struggle forum, Robin D. G. Kelley advocates for a rebirth of grassroots political education. A forum contributor, Derecka Purnell, informed us that some groups of student-activists are already doing exactly that. At Harvard Law School, a group called Reclaim Harvard Law has occupied one of the school's lounges and is holding weekly political education sessions there. Purnell shared with us her list of the texts that have been circulating in the group. It shows an investment in liberation not only from racial oppression, but from all forms of oppression, including sexual and financial. The list is informed by a commitment to "intersectionality," Kimberlé Crenshaw's insight that various forms of oppression are entangled and amplify one another, and thus must be fought in concert. We present this list, in the form it was presented to us, as the current pulse of the movement and a testament to its members' brilliance. [Purnell wishes to acknowledge also the work of Rekia Mohammed-Jibrin, who worked with the Dream Defenders' Womxn Faction to compile a portion of this list.]
Abu-Jamal, Mumia. We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2004.

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press, 2010.

Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time. New York: Dial Press, 1963.

Bell, Derrick. Race, Racism and American Law. Boston: Little, Brown, 1973.

---. "Who's Afraid of Critical Race Theory?" University of Illinois Law Review, 1995, 893-910. [ Online.]

Biko, Steve. I Write What I Like.San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986.

Clark, Kenneth B. Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power. New York: Harper and Row, 1965.

The Black Radical Tradition Reader, compiled by the Communist Research Cluster and Viewpoint Magazine, c. 2015. [A collection of public-domain writings, from Du Bois and Fanon to members of the Black Panther Party, that underpin the black radical tradition. Online.]

The Combahee River Collective. "A Black Feminist Statement." In The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory, edited by Linda Nicholson, 63-70. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas, eds. Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement. New York: The New Press, 1995.

Davis, Angela Y. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2016.

---. Women, Race and Class. New York: Vintage, 1981.

Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. Translated by Charles Lam Markmann. New York: Grove Press, 1967.

---. The Wretched of the Earth. Translated by Constance Farrington, with a preface by Jean-Paul Sartre. New York: Grove Press, 1963.

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos. New York: Herder and Herder, 1970.

Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. "In the Shadow of the Shadow State." In The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-profit Industrial Complex, ed. INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2007.

Harney, Stefano and Fred Moten. The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study. New York: Minor Compositions, 2013. [ Online.]

Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

James, Joy, ed. Imprisoned Intellectuals: America's Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.

James, Selma. Sex, Race and Class: The Perspective of Winning: A Selection of Writings 1952-2011. Oakland: PM Press, 2012.

Kelley, Robin D. G. Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press, 2002.

---. Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class. New York: The Free Press, 1996.

King, Martin Luther, Jr. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963. [ Online.]

Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing Press, 1984
Women, Race, Colonialism, and Violence:
McDuffie, Erik S. Sojourning for Freedom: Black Women, American Communism, and the Making of Black Left Feminism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011.

Mies, Maria. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour. London: Zed Books, 1986.

Federici, Silvia. Caliban and the Witch. New York: Autonomedia, 2004.

Wynter, Sylvia. "1492: A New World View," In Race, Discourse, and the Origin of the Americas: A New World View, edited by Vera Lawrence Hyatt and Rex Nettleford, 5-57. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995.

---. "Afterword: Beyond Miranda's Meanings: Un/silencing the 'Demonic Ground' of Caliban's 'Woman.'" In Out of the Kumbla: Caribbean Women and Literature, edited by Carol Boyce Davies and Elaine Savory Fido, 355-72. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1990.

---. "Is 'Development' a Purely Empirical Concept or also Teleological?: A Perspective from 'We the Underdeveloped.'" In Prospects for Recovery and Sustainable Development in Africa, edited by Aguibou Y. Yansane, 299-316. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Left Feminism and Violence by the State:
---. "No Human Involved: An Open Letter to My Colleagues." Voices of the African Diaspora 8 (1992): 13-6.

---. "On How We Mistook the Map for the Territory, and Re-Imprisoned Ourselves in Our Unbearable Wrongness of Being, of Désêtre: Black Studies Toward the Human Project." In Not Only the Master's Tools: African-American Studies in Theory and Practice, edited by Lewis R. Gordon and Jane Anna Gordon, 107-72. Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2006.

Baldwin, James. "A Talk to Teachers." In The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction 1948-1985, 325-332. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985.

Baldwin, James and Audre Lorde. "Revolutionary Hope: A Conversation Between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde." Essence (December 1984). [ Online.]

Davies, Carole Boyce. Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Davis, Angela Y. Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prison, Torture and Empire. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2005.

---. "Racialized Punishment and Prison Abolition." In The Angela Y. Davis Reader, edited by Joy James, 96-110. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, Inc., 1998.

Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. "Forgotten Places and the Seeds of Grassroots Planning." In Engaging Contradictions: Theory, Politics, and Methods of Activist Scholarship, edited by Charles R. Hale, 31-61. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.

---. Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.

---. "Race, Prisons and War: Scenes from the Gilmore History of US Violence." Socialist Register 45 (2009): 73-87.

James, Joy. Resisting State Violence: Radicalism, Gender, and Race in U.S. Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, l996.

Jones, Claudia. Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment. Edited by Carole Boyce Davies. Banbury, Oxfordshire, UK: Ayebia Clarke Publishing Limited, 2011.

Nyasha, Kiilu. "'Iola,' Princess of the Press: The Story of Feminist Anti-Lynching Crusader, Ida B.Wells-Barnett," August 25, 2014. [ Online.]
Intersectionality, Gender, and Anti-blackness:
Sexton, Jared. "Racial Profiling and the Societies of Control." In Warfare in the American Homeland: Policing and Prison in a Penal Democracy, edited by Joy James, 197-218. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Wells, Ida B. Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases. New York: The New York Age Print, 1892. [ Online.]

Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé. "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color." Stanford Law Review 43 (1991): 1241-99.

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, ed. The Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2006.

Jibrin, Rekia and Sara Salem. "Revisiting Intersectionality: Reflections on Theory and Praxis." Trans-Scripts 5 (2015): 7-24.

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. "Transnational Feminist Crossings: On Neoliberalism and Radical Critique." Signs 38, no. 4 (2013): 967-91.
(De)Criminalizing Gender:
Spillers, Hortense. "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book." Diacritics 17, no. 2 (1987): 64-81.

Sudbury, Julia, ed. Global Lockdown: Race, Gender, and the Prison-Industrial Complex. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Bumiller, Kristin. In an Abusive State: How Neoliberalism Appropriated the Feminist Movement Against Sexual Violence. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008.

Chen, Ching-In, Jai Dulani, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, eds. The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities. Brooklyn: South End Press, 2011.

Mogul, Joey L., Andrea J. Ritchie, and Kay Whitlock. Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States. Boston: Beacon Press, 2012.

Raider Nation Collective. "The Ambivalent Silences of the Left: Lovelle Mixon, Police and the Politics of Race and Rape," San Francisco Bay View, April 21, 2009. [ Online.]
Decolonializing Gender:
Ritchie, Beth E. Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation. New York: New York University Press, 2012.

Stanley, Eric A., and Nat Smith, eds. Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex. Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2011.

Bouteldja, Houria. "Feminist or not? Thinking about the possibility of a 'decolonial feminism' with James Baldwin and Audre Lorde." Lecture presented at the University of California, Berkeley, April 14, 2014. Translated by Geneviève Rail. [ Online.]

Lugones, Maria. "The Coloniality of Gender." Volume 2, Dossier 2: On the De-Colonial (II): Gender and Decoloniality, April 1, 2008. [ Online.]

---. "Heterosexualism and the Colonial/Modern Gender System." Hypatia 22 (2007): 186-209.
Other useful resources:
Mignolo, Walter. "Preface," Volume 2, Dossier 2: On the De-Colonial (II): Gender and Decoloniality, April 1, 2008. [ Online.]

Puar, Jasbir. "Rethinking Homonationalism." International Journal of Middle East Studies 45 (2013): 336-9.

Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies. New York: Routledge, 1998.

Biondi, Martha. The Black Revolution on Campus. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, directed by Gören Olsson, 2011. Distributed by MPI Home Video.

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, directed by Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer, 2003. [ Watch online.]

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2015.

Concerning Violence, written and directed by Gören Olsson, 2014. Distributed by Films Boutique.

Evans, Mary, and Carolyn H. Williams, eds. Gender: The Key Concepts. New York: Routledge, 2013.

Glaude, Eddie S., Jr. Democracy In Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul. New York: Crown Publishers, 2016.

Lamar, Kendrick. To Pimp a Butterfly. Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope, musical album. Released 2015.

Omar, written and directed by Hany Abu-Assad, 2014. Distributed by Adopt Films.

Payne, Charles M. I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle, 2nd ed. with a new preface. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.

Robinson, Randall. The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks. New York: Dutton, 2000.

Scott-Heron, Gil. "Black History/The World." On Moving Target, Arista, released 1982.

---. "Johannesburg." On From South Africa to South Carolina, TVT Records, released 1975.

---. "On Coming from a Broken Home." On I'm New Here, XL Recordings, musical album, released 2010.

---. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." On Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, Flying Dutchman, musical album, released 1970.

Straight Outta Compton, directed by F. Gary Gray, 2015. Distributed by Universal Pictures.

Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2016.

Washington, Harriet A. Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.New York: Doubleday, 2006.

Woodson, Jacqueline. Brown Girl Dreaming. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014.

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A primer in the history and practice of radical black politics. Editors' Note: In the Critical Reading (to Have and to Hold): Black Study, Black Struggle forum, Robin D. G. Kelley advocates for a rebirth of grassroots political education. A forum contributor, Derecka Purnell, informed us that some groups of student-activists are already doing exactly that.

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Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement

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Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement

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"Transformative justice seeks to solve the problem of violence at the grassroots level, without relying on punishment, incarceration, or policing. Community-based approaches to preventing crime and repairing its damage have existed for centuries. However, in the punative atmosphere of contemporary criminal justice systems, they are often marginalized and operate under the radar. Beyond Survival puts these strategies front and center as real alternatives to today's failed models of confinement and 'correction.'

In this collection, a diverse group of authors focuses on concrete and practical forms of redress and accountability, assessing existing practices and marking paths forward."

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5.2 X 7.9 X 1.0 inches | 0.85 pounds

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is the Lambda Award winning author of Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home, Bodymap, Love Cake, Consensual Genocide and co-editor of The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Intimate Violence in Activist Communities. A lead artist with the disability justice collective Sins Invalid, she is a longtime cultural worker, educator and organizer within disability and transformative justice communities.

Ejeris Dixon is an organizer, consultant, and political strategist with twenty years of experience organizing within racial justice, LGBTQ, transformative justice, anti-violence, and economic justice movements. She is the Founding Director of Vision Change Win Consulting where she partners with organizations to build their capacity and deepen the impact of their organizing strategies. Her essay, Building Community Safety: Practical Steps Toward Liberatory Transformation, is featured in the anthology Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? Police Violence and Resistance in the United States.

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Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Transformative justice seeks to solve the problem of violence at the grassroots level, without relying on punishment, incarceration, or policing. Community-based approaches to preventing crime and repairing its damage have existed for centuries. However, in the punative atmosphere of contemporary criminal justice systems, they are often marginalized and operate under the radar.

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Transform Harm: A Resource Hub About Ending Violence

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Transform Harm: A Resource Hub About Ending Violence

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"TransformHarm.org is a resource hub about ending violence. We are not an organization. This site offers an introduction to transformative justice. Created by Mariame Kaba and designed by Lu Design Studio, the site includes selected articles, audio-visual resources, curricula, and more.

You can use what is here, and submit recommendations to be added to the focus areas listed here. We hope you will use these materials to foster your own education and also share them with your communities to build something new. Only together can we transform our relationships to each other and society. We hope that this site helps in this effort."

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TransformHarm.org | A Resource Hub For Ending Violence

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TransformHarm.org is a resource hub for ending violence. It offers an introduction to transformative justice. You can use what is here, and submit recommendations.

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"How does shame block accountability? Why do we tend towards performative apology when we work from a basis of shame? In this video, people with years of experience facilitating processes between survivors of harm and people who have done harm talk about how coming from a framework of shame can shut us down and get in the way of authentic accountability.

This video is part of the Building Accountable Communities video series. The Building Accountable Communities Project promotes non-punitive responses to harm by developing resources for transformative justice practitioners and organizing convenings and workshops that educate the public.

Created by Project Nia and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. Video produced by Mariame Kaba, Dean Spade, and Hope Dector."

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A reading list centering anti-racism.

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Ibram X. Kendi’s Antiracist Reading List (Published 2019)

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Ibram X. Kendi on books to help America transcend its racist heritage.

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"Our purpose is to dismantle anti-Blackness, fight against racial injustices and end police brutality. This includes Strafford & Rockingham Counties of New Hampshire, Essex County of Massachusetts, and York County of Maine.

OUR GOALS

Nurture Black youth leadership

Support Black community through mutual aid projects (food drives, scholarships, etc.)

Promote Black-owned businesses

Demand an investment into education, social services, enhancing the health of black people and away from exploitative forces such as law enforcement, jail and prisons, that have harmed and criminalized the black community."

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BLACK STUDENTS MATTER ACHIEVEMENT SCHOLARSHIP

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Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century - Alice Wong

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Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century - Alice Wong

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"One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent--but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people."

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"Alice Wong should be in charge of editing all books. Even better, Alice Wong should be in charge of everything! To Alice, words like 'diversity' and 'intersectionality' aren't just buzzwords. They are marching orders. In this book, she has collected a staggering array of stories from writers who experience disability in vastly different ways. This isn't meant to be THE DEFINITIVE BOOK on disability. It is a doorway, and Alice is inviting us all to go through the doorway and continue our learning process. She even ends the collection with a bibliography that extends far beyond your standard reading list. Whether you currently consider yourself part of the disability community or not, you're gonna want to take in the wisdom woven throughout this book. Now more than ever, our society desperately needs to listen to and take action on the changes disabled artists and activists have been demanding for so long. I am lucky she is my friend." --W. Kamau Bell, host of United Shades of America

"These essays are the heart, the bones, and the blood of Disability Rights. They honestly bare the joys, pleasures, sorrows, anger, frustrations, fears, and hope of real-life, complete human beings. Disability Visibility offers its readers the chance to open their minds, re-train their hearts, and raise their expectations of society. It is one grounding stone on the path to true liberation and acceptance for human beings in all their glorious variations. Alice Wong delicately arranges these gems--the brilliant hues, the unique contours, and the sharp edges--to create a beautiful mosaic of disability." --Gaelynn Lea, musician and activist

"As a Deaf Asian American, it wasn't until recent years that I started considering myself disabled. These stories validated many complicated experiences I had while growing up and felt fully relatable. When did I realize I deserved a better future? When did I stop feeling the need to assimilate? When did I become radicalized by ableism? There are many ways to be disabled and even though we aren't offered many platforms to present ourselves, we exist and we want to write our own history. This is a very informed starting point for anyone who, like myself, would like to get a better understanding of disability as a massive and beautifully nuanced spectrum." --Christine Sun Kim, artist

"If we're going to talk about diversity in earnest then we must acknowledge the contributors in Alice Wong's anthology and how their essays encapsulate intersectional dialogue, intellectual thought, and intimate details. Disability Visibility is the perfect name for this collection because the authors words resound loudly and deserve to be heard. Books like this showcase why change is needed, what needs to be part of the larger political consciousness, and who is often left out of the conversation. This book is a celebration and a source of deep education for many to bear witness (and feel seen by) the vastness of disabled stories, voices, and backgrounds." --Jennifer Baker, editor of Everyday People: The Color of Life--A Short Story Anthology

"Wong's discerning selections, bolstered by the activism that shines through, will educate and inspire readers." --Kirkus Reviews

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Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century

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ONE OF THE PROGRESSIVE'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent--but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture.

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Mia Mingus (who is one of the first organizers you see in the "What is Accountability?" Youtube video!) writes a blog post on accountability.

Surf through the rest of her site as well. Lots of valuable content to surf through!

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Understanding Transformative Justice and Restorative Justice

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Understanding Transformative Justice and Restorative Justice

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Transformative justice (TJ) and restorative justice (RJ) have a long lineage of being used in marginalized communities of color. TJ & RJ are systems of accountability that are used to addressed harm. These systems differ from punitive strategies.

This website has additional resources to explore both TJ & RJ more in-depth.

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Understanding Transformative Justice and Restorative Justice

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As a survivor-centred agency that believes that people are the experts of their own lives, SACE supports the choices people who have experienced sexual violence may make in order to seek healing for themselves and accountability from the person who harmed them.

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"Ericka Hart (pronouns: she/they) is a black queer femme activist, writer, highly acclaimed speaker and award-winning sexuality educator with a Master’s of Education in Human Sexuality from Widener University.

Ericka’s voice is rooted in leading edge thought around human sexual expression as inextricable to overall human health and its intersections with race, gender, chronic illness and disability. Both radical and relatable, she continues to push well beyond the threshold of sex positivity."

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Ericka Hart (pronouns: she/they) is a black queer femme activist, writer, highly acclaimed speaker and award-winning sexuality educator with a Master's of Education in Human Sexuality from Widener University. Ericka's work broke ground when she went topless showing her double mastectomy scars in public in 2016. Since then, she has been in demand at colleges and universities across the country, featured in countless digital and print publications including Buzzfeed, Washington Post, Allure, Huffington Post, BBC News, Cosmopolitan, LA Weekly, Vanity Fair, W Magazine, Glamour, Elle, Essence, Fader, Refinery 29, and is the face of three running PSAs on the television channel VICELAND. Ericka's voice is rooted in leading edge thought around human sexual expression as inextricable to overall human health and its intersections with race, gender, chronic illness and disability. Both radical and relatable, she continues to push well beyond the threshold of sex positivity. Ericka is currently an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University's School of Social Work and the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, a bratty switchy Sagittarius service bottom and misses Whitney more than you.

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Ericka Hart (pronouns: she/they) is a black queer femme activist, writer, highly acclaimed speaker and award-winning sexuality educator with a Master's of Education in Human Sexuality from Widener University. Ericka's work broke ground when she went topless showing her double mastectomy scars in public in 2016.

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Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education - Olzem Sensoy & Robin DiAngelo

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Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education - Olzem Sensoy & Robin DiAngelo

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This is an excellent text if you want to dive into social justice concepts on a more foundational level. IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED YOU READ THIS IN COMMUNITY WITH OTHERS TO PROCESS THE INFORMATION!

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Is Everyone Really Equal An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education by Ozlem Sensoy, Robin DiAngelo, James A. Banks (z-lib.org).epub

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All About Love: New Visions - bell hooks

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All About Love: New Visions - bell hooks

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"The word 'love' is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb," writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessness--not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society's failure to provide a model for learning to love."

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Product Details

5.3 X 8.0 X 0.7 inches | 0.52 pounds

About the Author

bell hooks is the author of several books, including Killing Rage, Bone Black, and Wounds of Passion. She is Distinguished Professor of English at City College in New York and lives in New York City.

Reviews

"Each offering from bell hooks is a major event, as she has so much to give us."-- Maya Angelou"She provides a refreshing spiritual treatise that steps outside the confines of the intellect and into the wilds of the heart."-- "Seattle Weekly"Like love, this book is worth the commitment."-- "Toronto Sun

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All about Love: New Visions a book by Bell Hooks

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The acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks' Love Song to the Nation," All About Love is a revelation about what causes a polarized society and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering.

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We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice - Mariame Kaba 

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We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice - Mariame Kaba 

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"Organizing is both science and art. It is thinking through a vision, a strategy, and then figuring out who your targets are, always being concerned about power, always being concerned about how you're going to actually build power in order to be able to push your issues, in order to be able to get the target to actually move in the way that you want to.

What if social transformation and liberation isn't about waiting for someone else to come along and save us? What if ordinary people have the power to collectively free ourselves? In this timely collection of essays and interviews, Mariame Kaba reflects on the deep work of abolition and transformative political struggle."

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Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property.

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We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice - adrienne maree brown 

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We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice - adrienne maree brown 

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"In We Will Not Cancel Us, movement mediator adrienne maree brown reframes the discussion for us, in a way that points to possible paths beyond this impasse. Most critiques of cancel culture come from outside the milieus that produce it, sometimes even from from its targets. However, brown explores the question from a Black, queer, and feminist viewpoint that gently asks, how well does this practice serve us? Does it prefigure the sort of world we want to live in? And, if it doesn't, how do we seek accountability and redress for harm in ways that reflect our values?"

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Product Details

4.4 X 6.4 X 0.3 inches | 0.2 pounds

Earn by promoting books

About the Author

adrienne maree brown is the author of Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds; Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good; co-editor of Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements; cohost of How to Survive the End of the World and Octavia's Parables; and founder of the Emergent Strategy Ideation Institute.

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We Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice

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Cancel culture addresses real harm...and sometimes causes more. It's time to think this through. "Cancel" or "call-out" culture is a source of much tension and debate in American society. The infamous "Harper's Letter," signed by public intellectuals of both the left and right, sought to settle the matter and only caused greater division.

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"Imagine Fat was created in hopes of helping shape a world where fat people feel seen, heard, valued, and represented by highlighting resources that challenge systems of oppression, power structures, and desirability politics within the fat identity/fat spectrum.

This site serves as a non-exhaustive compendium of resources on fat liberation/fat acceptance/fat justice and the intersections of fat within other identities."

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Every body is good: Body inclusive resources for a body inclusive world.

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In social justice spaces, we often talk about holding ourselves and others "accountable" for our actions. But what does that mean?

This video highlights a variety of community organizers who talk about accountability in-depth.

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"Wear Your Voice is a digital magazine for and by LGBTQIA+ Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) based in the United States. We publish reported articles, features, personal essays, and critical analyses of current events, politics, entertainment, culture, sexuality, health, and more.

We prioritize the voices of those who have historically been kept out of mainstream publishing and we aim to highlight our stories, our cultures, and our perspectives in a world that has ignored us."

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Welcome to Wear Your Voice, an intersectional feminist publication. Our magazine is for Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). Our goal is to make more room for marginalized voices away from the white, cis-centric, heteronormative, patriarchal gaze.

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Introduction to Abolition: Full Reading List

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Introduction to Abolition: Full Reading List

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Recently, there are been a huge uptake in interest in abolitionist ideas.

Prison abolition has long and diverse tradition of thinking and organizing around these questions. Abolition has been influenced by the radical black tradition, indigenous organizing, marxist and anarchist ideas, queer and feminist analysis. And at their most successful, abolitionist principles embed themselves within all political struggles: disability activism, housing and welfare campaigns, feminist organizing, environmental justice, anti-war and anti-border struggles to name a few.

This site contains a detailed reading list with helpful links and suggestions to even start a reading group among colleagues/family/friends/loved ones!

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Recently, there are been a huge uptake in interest in abolitionist ideas. More and more people are questioning whether prisons are the best response to harms in society and whether the police actually function to bring about a safer society. But how might we need to alter our thinking, practices and social institutions to build a world without prisons and policing?

Prison abolition has long and diverse tradition of thinking and organising around these questions. Abolition has been influenced by the radical black tradition, indigenous organising, marxist and anarchist ideas, queer and feminist analysis. And at their most successful, abolitionist principles embed themselves within all political struggles: disability activism, housing and welfare campaigns, feminist organising, environmental justice, anti-war and anti-border struggles to name a few.

We have put together this reading list to introduce you to abolitionist ideas via short, accessible and introductory texts, podcasts and videos. We hope they spark informed discussions of abolitionist ideas to take with you to work places, campaign meetings, and conversations with friends and family.

The suggested reading list is not exhaustive and inevitably has many gaps and limitations. This is both because it is not possible to cover everything within five weeks, and also because we were trying to include a variety of content. If you have suggestions for other readings, please let us know as we are working on a phase two list.

We recognise that a fair number of the readings are from the US. This is in part due to the more established abolitionist organising there. However it is important to bear in mind that there are significant differences in context, and we can't simply import US analysis or strategies to the UK. The readings have been chosen to offer some starting points for discussion, including how lessons learned in other contexts might be useful in thinking about the UK situation.

Contents
Session 1: Introduction to Abolition Session 2: What is wrong with reform? Session 3: Feminist, Queer and Anti-racist Abolition Session 4: Transformative Justice Session 5: Mutual Aid and Covid-19 Session 6: Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police Further Resources and Reading!

Session 1: Introduction to abolition

Core Reading:

1. Davis, Angela. (2003) 'Introduction: Prison Reform or Prison Abolition?; Are Prisons Obsolete? New York: Seven Stories Press, P. 9-21 [12 pages]

2. Critical Resistance. (no date) What is Abolition? [1 page]

3. Prison Research Education Action Project (1976) ' Nine Perspectives for Prison Abolitionists', & ' Diminishing / Dismantling the Prison System,' from Instead of Prisons: A Handbook for Abolitionists. [2 pages + 5 pages].

Second Round Reading: Further reading:
Ben-Moshe, Liat. (2014) Alternatives to (Disability) Incarceration. In: Ben-Moshe, L., Chapman, C. and Carey, A. C. (eds.) Disability Incarcerated: Imprisonment and Disability in the United States and Canada. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.255-271

Ware, Syrus and Joan Ruzsa and Giselle Dias, Giselle. (2014) It Can't Be Fixed Because It's Not Broken: Racism and Disability in the Prison Industrial Complex. In: Ben-Moshe, L., Chapman, C. and Carey, A. C. (eds.) Disability Incarcerated: Imprisonment and Disability in the United States and Canada. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.163-184.

Witlock, Kay (2016) Prison Reform Misdirection: 5 Caveats About Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration Beacon Broadside.

Session 2: What's wrong with reform? What are non-reformist reforms?

Session 3: Feminist, queer, antiracist approaches to abolition

Core Reading: Second Round Reading: Further reading:
' Decolonization Means Prison Abolition .' Video of Law & Disorder Conference in Portland, 2012.

Law, Victoria (2011) Resisting Gender Violence without Cops or Prisons [Video]

Law, Victoria (2014) Against Carceral Feminism JacobinMag.com

Levine, Judith and Erica Meiners (2020) The Feminist and the Sex Offender: Confronting Sexual Harm, Ending State Violence . Verso Books.

Russell, Emma. and Bree Carlton (2013) Pathways, race and gender responsive reform: Through an abolitionist lens. Theoretical Criminology 17 (4), pp.474-492.

Smith, Andrea (2009) Beyond Restorative Justice: Radical Organising Against Violence. In: Ptacek, J. (ed.) Restorative Justice and Violence Against Women. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, pp.255-278.

Smith, Molly and Juno Mac (2018) Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights. (2018) Verso.

Session 4: Transformative Justice & Abolition

Core Reading: Second Round Reading: Further reading:
TransformHarm.org [Resources Hub on ending violence from transformative justice perspectives]

Chen, C.-I., Dulani and Laksmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, L. (2008) The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Partner Abuse in Activist Communities ('zine).

Chen, C.-I., Dulani, J. and Piepzna-Samarasinha, L. L. (eds.) (2011) The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities. [Book] Brooklyn, NY: South End Press.

Communities Against Rape and Abuse (CARA) (2008) 'T aking Risks: Implementing grassroots community accountability strategies' The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Partner Abuse in Activist Communities ['zine], p. 64-79
Community Accountability Resource List
GenerationFive (2017) Ending Child Sexual Abuse: A Transformative Justice Handbook.

The Movement for Black Lives (2016) A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom & Justice

Philly Stands Up & Benjamin Holtzman and Kevin Van Meter (2012) Furthering Transformative Justice, Building Healthy Communities: An Interview with Philly Stands Up

The Movement for Black Lives (2016) A Vision for Black Lives: Policy Demands for Black Power, Freedom & Justice

Session 5: Abolitionist Mutual Aid and responses to COVID-19

Session 6: Black Lives Matter & Defund the Police

Further Reading/Other Abolitionist Reading Lists:

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Full Reading List - Abolitionist Futures

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Recently, there are been a huge uptake in interest in abolitionist ideas. More and more people are questioning whether prisons are the best response to harms in society and whether the police actually function to bring about a safer society.