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Social Justice Reading List

A guide focused on conducting research on social justice issues and providing resources on social justice causes

Fiction

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Call Number: PS3610.O63 A84 2018

ISBN: 9781616208776

Publication Date: 2018-02-06
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Call Number: PS3563.O8749 B4 1988b

ISBN: 9781400033416

Publication Date: 2004-06-08
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Call Number: PS3563.O8749 B55 2007

ISBN: 9780307278449

Publication Date: 2007-05-08
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Call Number: PZ7.1.T4567 Hat 2017

ISBN: 9780062498533

Publication Date: 2017-02-28
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Call Number: PS3607.Y37 H66 2016

ISBN: 9781101947135

Publication Date: 2016-06-07
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Call Number: PS3552.A45 I4 2006

ISBN: 9780307275936

Publication Date: 2006-10-10
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Call Number: PS3555.L625 I5 1952

ISBN: 9780679732761

Publication Date: 1995-03-14
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
Call Number: PS3552.U827 K5 2003

ISBN: 9780807083697

Publication Date: 2004-02-01
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Call Number: PS3573.H4768 N53 2019

ISBN: 9780385537070

Publication Date: 2019-07-16
Passing by Nella Larsen; Thadious Davis (Editor, Introduction by)
Call Number: PS3523.A7225 P37 1997

ISBN: 0141180250

Publication Date: 1997-09-01
Recitatif: A Story by Toni Morrison
Call Number: PS3563.O8749 R43 2022

ISBN: 9780593315033

Publication Date: 2022-02-01
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Mary Helen Washington (Foreword by)
Call Number: PS3515.U789 T639 1990

ISBN: 9780060916503

Publication Date: 1990-01-01

Memoir

Assata by Assata Shakur; Angela Y. Davis (Foreword by); Lennox S. Hinds (Foreword by)
Call Number: E185.97.S53 A3 2001

ISBN: 9781556520747

Publication Date: 1999-11-01
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
Call Number: E185.97.L75 A3 1973

ISBN: 9780345350688

Publication Date: 1987-10-12
Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth
Call Number: HS2330.K63 S727 2018

ISBN: 9781250299055

Publication Date: 2018-06-05
Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper
Call Number: HQ1413.C67 C67 2018

ISBN: 9781250112576

Publication Date: 2018-02-20
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Call Number: E185.61 .B195 1993

ISBN: 9780679744726

Publication Date: 1992-12-01
The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward
Call Number: E185.615 .F526 2016

ISBN: 9781501126345

Publication Date: 2016-08-02
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Call Number: KF9223 .S74 2014

ISBN: 9780812984965

Publication Date: 2015-08-18
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight
Call Number: E449 .D749 2017

ISBN: 9781319048891

Publication Date: 2016-09-02
On the Other Side of Freedom by DeRay Mckesson
Call Number: E185.615 .M3535 2018

ISBN: 9780525560326

Publication Date: 2018-09-04
A Taste of Power by Elaine Brown
Call Number: E185.97.B866 A3 1994

ISBN: 9780385471077

Publication Date: 1993-12-01
This Bridge Called My Back by Cherríe Moraga (Editor); Gloria Anzaldúa (Editor); Johnetta Tinker (Illustrator); Toni Cade Bambara (Foreword by)
Call Number: PS509.F44 T5 1983

ISBN: 9780913175033

Publication Date: 1983-03-01
When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrisse Khan-Cullors; asha bandele
Call Number: E185.97.K43 A3 2018

ISBN: 9781250306906

Publication Date: 2020-01-14

Plays and Poetry

Citizen by Claudia Rankine
Call Number: PS3568.A572 C58 2014

ISBN: 9781555976903

Publication Date: 2014-10-07
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
Call Number: PS3569.H3324 F6 1989

ISBN: 9780020248910

Publication Date: 1989-04-24

Nonfiction

Ain't I a Woman by bell hooks
Call Number: E185.86 .H73 1991

ISBN: 9780896081291

Publication Date: 1999-07-01
American Lynching by Ashraf H. A. Rushdy
Call Number: HV6457 .R867 2012

ISBN: 9780300181388

Publication Date: 2012-10-30
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
Call Number: HV9471 .D375 2003

ISBN: 9781583225813

Publication Date: 2003-08-05
Beneath a Ruthless Sun by Gilbert King
Call Number: HV9955.F6 K56 2018

ISBN: 9780399183386

Publication Date: 2018-04-24
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Call Number: E185.615 .C6335 2015

ISBN: 9780812993547

Publication Date: 2015-07-14
Biased by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
Call Number: BF575.P9 E34 2019

ISBN: 9780735224933

Publication Date: 2019-03-26
Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins
Call Number: HQ1426 .C633 2000

ISBN: 9780415964722

Publication Date: 2008-09-11
Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon; Richard Philcox (Translator); Kwame Anthony Appiah (Foreword by)
Call Number: GN645 .F732 2005

ISBN: 9780802143006

Publication Date: 2008-09-10
Black Stats by Monique W. Morris; Khalil Gibran Muhammad (Introduction by)
Call Number: E185.86 .M637 2014

ISBN: 9781595589194

Publication Date: 2014-01-28
But Some of Us Are Brave by Gloria T. Hull (Editor); Patricia Bell Scott (Editor); Barbara Smith (Editor)
Call Number: E185.86 .A4 1982

ISBN: 9780912670959

Publication Date: 1993-01-01
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Call Number: E185.61 .R8185 2017

ISBN: 9781631494536

Publication Date: 2018-05-01
The Condemnation of Blackness by Khalil Gibran Muhammad
Call Number: HV6197.U6 M85 2010

ISBN: 9780674238145

Publication Date: 2019-07-22
Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King
Call Number: KF224.G76 K56 2012

ISBN: 9780061792281

Publication Date: 2012-03-06
Divided Sisters by Kathy Russell; Midge Wilson
Call Number: E185.86 .W555 1996

ISBN: 0385473613

Publication Date: 1995-12-01
Dog Whistle Politics by Ian Haney López
Call Number: E185.615 .H278 2014

ISBN: 9780199964277

Publication Date: 2014-01-13
Elizabeth and Hazel by David Margolick
Call Number: F419.L7 M37 2011

ISBN: 9780300141931

Publication Date: 2011-10-04
Fatal Invention by Dorothy Roberts
Call Number: GN269 .R64 2011

ISBN: 9781595588340

Publication Date: 2012-09-04
Great Speeches by African Americans by James Daley (Editor)
Call Number: PS663.N4 G74 2006

ISBN: 9780486447612

Publication Date: 2006-04-28
Habits of Whiteness by Terrance MacMullan
Call Number: E184.A1 M146 2009

ISBN: 9780253220714

Publication Date: 2009-03-26
The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter
Call Number: E184.A1 P29 2010

ISBN: 9780393339741

Publication Date: 2011-04-18
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Call Number: E184.A1 K344 2019

ISBN: 9780525509288

Publication Date: 2019-08-13
How We Fight White Supremacy by Akiba Solomon; Kenrya Rankin
Call Number: E185.61 .H845 2019

ISBN: 9781568588490

Publication Date: 2019-03-26
I Can't Breathe by Matt Taibbi
Call Number: HV8148.N52 T35 2017

ISBN: 9780812988840

Publication Date: 2017-10-24
The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen; Jeffrey B. Perry (Introduction by)
Call Number: E185 .A44 1994

ISBN: 9781844677696

Publication Date: 2012-11-20

More Nonfiction

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad; Robin DiAngelo (Foreword by)
Call Number: HT1575 .S23 2020

ISBN: 9781728209807

Publication Date: 2020-01-28
The Miner's Canary by Lani Guinier; Gerald Torres
Call Number: E184.A1 G94 2002

ISBN: 0674004698

Publication Date: 2002-02-15
A More Beautiful and Terrible History by Jeanne Theoharis
Call Number: E185.61 .T44 2018

ISBN: 9780807063484

Publication Date: 2019-02-12
My Grandmother's Hands (eBook) by Resmaa Menakem
ISBN: 9781942094609

Publication Date: 2017-09-26

The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze. My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for Americans to recognize that racism is not about the head, but about the body. Author Resmaa Menakem introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Call Number: HV9950 .A437 2010

ISBN: 9781620971932

Publication Date: 2020-01-07
On Account of Race by Lawrence Goldstone
Call Number: KF4755 .G65 2020

ISBN: 9781640093928

Publication Date: 2020-05-05
The Possessive Investment in Whiteness by George Lipsitz
Call Number: E184.A1 L56 1998

ISBN: 9781439916391

Publication Date: 1998-06-01
Racism Without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
Call Number: E184.A1 B597 2018

ISBN: 9781442276239

Publication Date: 2017-06-09
Sister Citizen by Melissa V. Harris-Perry
Call Number: E185.86 .H375 2011

ISBN: 9780300165418

Publication Date: 2011-09-20
Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon
Call Number: E185.2 .B545 2008

ISBN: 9780385722704

Publication Date: 2009-01-13
So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Call Number: E184.A1 O454 2018

ISBN: 9781580058827

Publication Date: 2019-09-24
The Source of Self-Regard by Toni Morrison
Call Number: PS3563.O8749 A6 2019

ISBN: 9780525521037

Publication Date: 2019-02-12
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
Call Number: E185.61 .K358 2016

ISBN: 9781568584638

Publication Date: 2016-04-12
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of Stamped from the Beginning by Jason Reynolds; Ibram X. Kendi
Call Number: E184.A1 R49 2020

ISBN: 9780316453691

Publication Date: 2020-03-10
Stay Woke by Tehama Lopez Bunyasi; Candis Watts Smith
Call Number: E185.615 .L66 2019

ISBN: 9781479836482

Publication Date: 2019-09-24
Stony the Road by Henry Louis Gates; Henry Louis Gates
Call Number: E185.61 .G253 2019

ISBN: 9780525559535

Publication Date: 2019-04-02
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Call Number: E185.6 .W685 2010

ISBN: 9780679444329

Publication Date: 2010-09-07
We Live for the We by Dani McClain
Call Number: HQ755.8 .M414 2019

ISBN: 9781568588544

Publication Date: 2019-04-02
West Indian Immigrants by Suzanne Model
Call Number: E184.W54 M63 2008

ISBN: 9780871546753

Publication Date: 2011-01-04
White Flight by Kevin M. Kruse
Call Number: F294.A89 A233 2005

ISBN: 0691092605

Publication Date: 2005-10-02
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo; Michael Eric Dyson (Foreword by)
Call Number: HT1521 .D486 2018

ISBN: 9780807047415

Publication Date: 2018-06-26
White Rage by Carol Anderson
Call Number: E185.61 .A5438 2016

ISBN: 9781632864130

Publication Date: 2017-09-05
Whiteness of a Different Color by Matthew F. Jacobson
Call Number: E184.E95 J33 1998

ISBN: 9780674063716

Publication Date: 1998-09-30
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Call Number: E185.625 .T38 1997

ISBN: 9780465091270

Publication Date: 1997-09-04
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Call Number: DA125.A1 E33 2017

ISBN: 9781635572957

Publication Date: 2019-03-05
Women, Race, and Class by Angela Y. Davis
Call Number: E185.86 .D383 1983

ISBN: 9780394713519

Publication Date: 1983-02-12
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon; Homi K. Bhabha (Foreword by); Richard Philcox (Translator); Jean-Paul Sartre (Preface by)
Call Number: DT33 .F313 2004

ISBN: 9780802141323

Publication Date: 2005-03-12
Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde
Call Number: PS3562.O75 A6 2017

ISBN: 9780995716223

Publication Date: 2017

Reading List Sources

Last Updated: Nov 25, 2025 1:19 PM
URL: https://researchguides.library.syr.edu/socialjustice
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