Stratford is a town with a growing minority population. We unequivocally condemn all forms of violence against Black, Latinos, Indigenous, and all People of Color. The library believes it is important to come forward and publicly state that we believe black lives matter. Libraries are often considered neutral spaces but the Stratford Library is far from neutral on the issue of racism. We can proudly say that the mission of the library “…to empower and enrich our diverse community by providing access to innovative services, information, and ideas” is one that seeks to directly combat divisiveness, ignorance, hate, and racism in our community. – Adopted by the Stratford Library Board, September 17, 2020
Libraries are places of inclusion and empowerment, dedicated to breaking down barriers to access and resisting inequality. Stratford Library strives to be a place of inclusion and equality. We are committed to educating ourselves as well as offering a space for our community to learn, reflect, share & grow as allies.
As librarians, our instinct is to share information with our patrons, but we are also reading, listening, and learning from our community. This list of anti-racism resources includes books, movies, podcasts and links to local and national organizations. We will add to this list as we continue to learn. It is our hope that this resource will empower and enrich our diverse community. Please note that these are not definitive lists, and will be updated regularly based on feedback from our partners and the public.
Nonfiction Books
Click on the links to go to the library catalog where you can browse the lists and reserve books.
Be sure to check Libby and Hoopla for ebooks and audiobooks
Fiction
Contemporary, Classics, and Historical
Reading Anti-Racist Nonfiction Is a Start. But Don’t Underestimate the Power of Black Fiction by Jasmine Guillory
Why read fiction? Looking through the lens of someone different than yourself is a direct path to empathy…Think about the last book you read. Who was the main character? What was their race, religion, gender, socioeconomic status? Did you relate to the character’s point of view, or was it new to you?
Poetry
For Teens – Fiction & Nonfiction
These books written for Teens, featuring Black authors, are available to borrow from Stratford Library. Click on the links to go to the library catalog where you can browse the lists and reserve books. Thank you to our Teen Librarians for putting this list together.
Be sure to check Libby and Hoopla for ebooks and audiobooks
Graphic Novels (fiction & nonfiction)
Books For Kids
These books are available to borrow from Stratford Library. Click on the links below to browse our catalog list and reserve books. Thank you to our Children’s Librarians for putting this list together.
Read along, Easy Readers and Bridge Books
Movies
Click on the above link to go to the library catalog where you can browse our selection of movies and reserve them.
Links to Learn and Explore
The Rudy & Calvin Fletcher African American History Museum – in Stratford. The exhibit is a collection of artifacts which reflect decades of turbulent times for African Americans in the United States during the period of slavery and the Civil Rights movement. It brings visitors up close and personal which is an experience that many have only read about in history books or seen in movies.
What We Lost In the Fire: Black Wall Street Before the Tulsa Race Massacre – from The Root
1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: Resources in the Collections – from Beinecke Library at Yale
Black Lives Matter: How far has the movement come? – The Conversation by Kwasi Konadu and Bright Gyamfi
The long history of US racism against Asian Americans, from ‘yellow peril’ to ‘model minority’ to the ‘Chinese virus’ by Adrian De Leon
The Muddled History of Anti-Asian Violence by Hua Hsu
Scientific American: From Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter
Why This Wave of Anti-Asian Racism Feels Different by Cathy Park Hong
Why we must talk about the Asian-American story, too by Brando Simeo Starkey
African American history Archives – Connecticut Museum of Culture and History
Links to get involved and increase awareness:
Citizens Addressing Racial Equity (C.A.R.E.) in the Town of Stratford is made up of volunteers working together to open communication among residents of all ages, socioeconomic groups, and ethnicities in non-confrontational ways to break down stereotypes, build trust and find ways to work together. For more information and to keep up with C.A.R.E, follow their Facebook Page. https://www.facebook.com/StratfordCARE/
National Museum of African American History and Culture. Talking about race, although hard, is necessary. We are here to provide tools and guidance to empower your journey and inspire conversation. https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race
Embracing Equity cultivates the mindsets and practices necessary to create an affirming, inclusive, and equitable educational ecosystem.
https://embracingequity.org/blog/2020/5/31/our-liberation-is-bound-togethernbsp
How can we help students understand George Floyd’s death in the context of institutionalized racism? The following articles, published over the course of JSTOR Daily’s five years try to provide such context. We will be updating this page with more stories and are working to acquire a reading list about institutionalized racism in the near future. (Note: Some readers may find some of the stories in this syllabus or the photos used to illustrate them disturbing. Teachers may wish to use caution in assigning them to students.) JSTOR Daily is an online publication that contextualizes current events with scholarship. https://daily.jstor.org/institutionalized-racism-a-syllabus/
A huge list of books and resources complied by Elizabeth Bird, the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system. Antiracist Resources and Reads: Lists for All Ages
Anti-Racism Resources for all ages. A Project by the Augusta Baker Chair, Dr. Nicole A. Cooke of the University of South Carolina. An amazing collection of links to books, websites and other resources.
The end of racism starts with each of us: Q&A with Vernā Myers, a Ted Talk.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice is a national affiliation of five leading organizations advocating for the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and other underserved communities to promote a fair and equitable society for all. They have a place to report hate crimes at standagainsthatred.org
Stop AAPI Hate – In response to the alarming escalation in xenophobia and bigotry resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council (A3PCON), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), and the Asian American Studies Department of San Francisco State University launched the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center on March 19, 2020. The center tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Our approach recognizes that in order to effectively address anti-Asian racism we must work to end all forms of structural racism leveled at Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color.
Recommended by YOU, our readers
Thank you to everyone that took the time to send us books, movies & podcasts to add to this list. Titles available at Stratford Library have also been added to the appropriate categories in the lists (if they were not already there). Stratford Library doesn’t own every book or movie. We can add some titles, other titles can be borrowed via interlibrary loan.
Books:
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates *
White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo. *
Stamped From the Beginning: the Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi *
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD*
Walking With The Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by Rep. John Lewis.
Urban Trauma: a Legacy of Racism by Maysa Akbar Ph.D., ABPP
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight
Native Son by Richard Wright **
Black Like Me John Howard Griffin
The Invention of the White Race, Vols 1 and 2 by Theodore W. Allen
Anything written by bell hooks
How to Be Less Stupid by Crystal Fleming
Lola Reads to Leo by Anna McQuinn, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw
The Nutcracker (Penguin Bedtime Classics) by E. T. A. Hoffmann, illustrated by Carly Gledhill
Rapunzel (Once Upon a World) by Chloe Perkins, illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan
Not Quite Snow White by Ashley Franklin, illustrated by Ebony Glenn
Jack & Beanstalk (Penguin Bedtime Classics) by E. T. A. Hoffmann, illustrated by Carly Gledhill
Uncle Tom’s Children by Richard Wright
Cane by Jean Toomer
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color Editors, Cherrie Moraga, Gloria Anzaldua; foreword, Toni Cade Bambara
Yesterday Will Make You Cry by Chester Himes
Poetry Speaks: Hear Great Poets Read Their Work from Tennyson to Plath (include poetry by Gwendlyn Brooks and Melvin Tolson)
Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks
The Harlem Reader: A Celebration of New York’s Most Famous Neighborhood, From the Renaissance Years to the Twenty-First Century, edited by Herb Boyd
The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown by Sterling A. Brown
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison.
Based on her Instagram posts, debut author-illustrator Harrison shares the stories of 40 bold African-American women who shaped history and changed the world. K-Gr 4
Movies:
13th (can watch on Netflix)
When They See Us (can watch on Netflix)
Podcasts:
Code Switch (NPR) – What’s CODE SWITCH? It’s the fearless conversations about race that you’ve been waiting for! Hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race head-on. We explore how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between. This podcast makes ALL OF US part of the conversation — because we’re all part of the story.
This American Life – This American Life is a weekly public radio program and podcast. Each week we choose a theme and put together different kinds of stories on that theme. Episode 707 – In this moment of sorrow, protest, and rage in the wake of George Floyd’s death, we offer this as a break from the dreadful present: our show about Afrofuturism. It’s a way of looking at black culture that’s fantastic and hopeful, which feels especially urgent during a time without a lot of optimism. Featuring the song “The Deep” by clppng
Throughline (NPR) – The past is never past. Every headline has a history. Join us every week as we go back in time to understand the present. These are stories you can feel and sounds you can see from the moments that shaped our world. American Police-June 4, 2020 -Black Americans being victimized and killed by the police is an epidemic. A truth many Americans are acknowledging since the murder of George Floyd, as protests have occurred in all fifty states calling for justice on his behalf. But this tension between African American communities and the police has existed for centuries. This week, the origins of American policing and how those origins put violent control of Black Americans at the heart of the system.
The Read – Join Kid Fury and Crissle for their weekly podcast covering hip-hop and pop culture’s most trying stars. Throwing shade and spilling tea with a flippant and humorous attitude, no star is safe from Fury and Crissle unless their name is Beyoncé. (Or Blue Ivy.)
APM Reports -In the Dark Season 2 – APM Reports strives to raise awareness, trigger debate and prompt positive change via non-partisan, independent investigative and documentary journalism.Curtis Flowers has been tried six times for the same crime. For more than 20 years, Flowers has maintained his innocence. He’s won appeal after appeal, but every time, the prosecutor just tries the case again. What does the evidence reveal? And why does the justice system ignore the prosecutor’s record and keep Flowers on death row?
Still Processing – Step inside the confession booth of Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham, two culture writers for The New York Times. They devour TV, movies, art, music and the internet to find the things that move them — to tears, awe and anger. Still Processing is where they try to understand the pleasures and pathologies of America in 2020.
Vanity Fair has an article on Eight Podcasts to Deepen Your Knowledge of Black History
Please check back for updates. Last update February 13, 2024