In response to protests around the country and around the world following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police we at the Social Justice Film Institute feel it important to honor the social justice moment we're living in right now. This document is intended to share films and reading inspired by the mission of social justice and racial equity and resources to donate in aid of those fighting for black lives and protesting police brutality. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The Social Justice Film Festival stands in solidarity with black communities and with organizers and protestors demanding justice and equity across the nation. We are committed to a global culture where it is not just equality but equity that is achieved on all levels. We will work to affirm the artists who make the art of filmmaking and the public bearing witness from our personal lens and from the streets an integral part of social change. Justice Matters. Black Lives Matter.

Deeply researched and widely reported, this exploration of the Black Power phenomenon that began to challenge the traditional civil rights movement in 1966 offers portraits of the major characters in the yearlong drama and the fierce battles over voting rights, identity politics, and the teaching of Black history.

While the world may know the major names of the Civil Rights movement, there are countless lesser-known heroes fighting the good fight to advance equal justice for all, heeding the call when no one else was listening, often risking their lives and livelihoods in the process. This book shines a light on everyday people called to do extraordinary things--like Pauli Murray, whose early work informed Thurgood Marshall's legal argument for Brown v. Board of Education; Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus months before Rosa Parks did the same; and Gwen Carr, whose private pain in losing her son Eric Garner stoked her public activism against police brutality. -- adapted from jacket

Before the Civil War, colonization schemes and black laws threatened to deport former slaves born in the United States. Birthright Citizens recovers the story of how African American activists remade national belonging through battles in legislatures, conventions, and courthouses. They faced formidable opposition, most notoriously from the US Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott. Still, Martha S. Jones explains, no single case defined their status. Former slaves studied law, secured allies, and conducted themselves like citizens, establishing their status through local, everyday claims. All along they argued that birth guaranteed their rights. With fresh archival sources and an ambitious reframing of constitutional law-making before the Civil War, Jones shows how the Fourteenth Amendment constitutionalized the birthright principle, and black Americans' aspirations were realized. Birthright Citizens tells how African American activists radically transformed the terms of citizenship for all Americans.

Welcome to the Social Justice LibGuide! As you begin your academic and intellectual journey at Adelphi University, or perhaps you have already begun and are continuing this odyssey, this LibGuide provides ideas, resources, and strategies to take charge of your education, both in the classroom and outside of it. Perhaps you identify with a marginalized, oppressed community, or perhaps you identify with a cross section of minoritized statuses, or perhaps you simply want to become an ally or you are sympatico to social justice causes. Use this LibGuide as a starting point to explore your heritage, ways to become involved in campaigns of interest to you, become acquainted with terminology and concepts, find courses at Adelphi that somehow address social justice issues, learn about important works written by others that you can explore in your extracurricular reading, and more. Paolo Freire, the famed Brazilian educator, warned against the banking model of education. By this he meant an understanding of education as a system where the teacher deposits knowledge to waiting and passive students. He redefined education as an arena where individuals think critically about reality and ways to transform it. Education should be centered around the experiences, culture and context of the lives of students. Education should be an interaction or an exchange with others. It is the basis for freedom and overcoming oppressive systems, behaviors and knowledge. You already bring so much to the table simply by being who you are, by what you already know, so use this to engage with the world around you and the people who inhabit it. Instead, approach this LibGuide with the berry-picking theory of information gathering in mind. By this, we mean that you may not know initially what exactly you are looking for, but as you explore, pick bits of information here and there as you come across knowledge and scholarship and resources that stimulate your mind. What you find may surprise and delight you. Find your own way through this important and continuing voyage that we call your education. Take control and refuse the banking model of education and the belief that there is only one standard, defined and true path to being educated. Begin the dialogue and the conversation! Find an idea, an organization, a book of poetry, or a legal decision, and use it to engage with your professors, your librarians, and your peers. Use this LibGuide to jumpstart the discussion with others. This is the basis for all education.

Drawing on scores of interviews with black and white tobacco workers in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Robert Korstad brings to life the forgotten heroes of Local 22 of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural and Allied Workers of America-CIO. These workers confronted a system of racial capitalism that consigned African Americans to the basest jobs in the industry, perpetuated low wages for all southerners, and shored up white supremacy. Galvanized by the emergence of the CIO, African Americans took the lead in a campaign that saw a strong labor movement and the reenfranchisement of the southern poor as keys to reforming the South--and a reformed South as central to the survival and expansion of the New Deal. In the window of opportunity opened by World War II, they blurred the boundaries between home and work as they linked civil rights and labor rights in a bid for justice at work and in the public sphere. But civil rights unionism foundered in the maelstrom of the Cold War. Its defeat undermined later efforts by civil rights activists to raise issues of economic equality to the moral high ground occupied by the fight against legalized segregation and, Korstad contends, constrains the prospects for justice and democracy today.

Scholar, writer, editor of The Crisis and other journals, co-founder of the Niagara Movement, the NAACP, and the Pan African Congresses, international spokesperson for peace and for the rights of oppressed minorities, W.E.B. Du Bois was a son of Massachusetts who articulated the strivings of African Americans and developed a trenchant analysis of the problem of the color line in the twentieth century. Includes over 100,000 items of correspondence (more than three quarters of the papers), speeches, articles, newspaper columns, nonfiction books, research materials, book reviews, pamphlets and leaflets, petitions, novels, essays, forewords, student papers, manuscripts of pageants, plays, short stories and fables, poetry, photographs, newspaper clippings, memorabilia, videotapes, audiotapes, and miscellaneous materials.

In a recently published piece in the Nation magazine, author and scholar Barbara Smith proposes a a comprehensive racial justice program even more sweeping than the Marshall Plan to combat white supremacy and resulting systemic racism. Smith talks to HMM correspondent Corinne Carey about her proposa

"First published in 1961, and reissued in this sixtieth anniversary edition with a powerful new introduction by Cornel West, Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth is a masterful and timeless interrogation of race, colonialism, psychological trauma, and revolutionary struggle, and a continuing influence on movements from Black Lives Matter to decolonization. A landmark text for revolutionaries and activists, The Wretched of the Earth is an eternal touchstone for civil rights, anti-colonialism, psychiatric studies, and Black consciousness movements around the world. Alongside Cornel West's introduction, the book features critical essays by Jean-Paul Sartre and Homi K. Bhabha. This sixtieth anniversary edition of Fanon's most famous text stands proudly alongside such pillars of anti-colonialism and anti-racism as Edward Said's Orientalism and The Autobiography of Malcolm X"--

"In his most recent book, Who We Be, Jeff Chang looked at how art and culture effected massive social changes in American society. Since the book was published, the country has been gripped by waves of racial discord, most notably the protests in Ferguson, Missouri. In these highly relevant, powerful essays, Chang examines some of the most contentious issues in the current discussion of race and inequality. Built around a central essay looking at the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the events in Ferguson, Missouri, surrounding the death of Michael Brown, Chang questions the value of "the diversity discussion" in an era of increasing racial and economic segregation. He unpacks the return of student protest across the country and reveals how the debate over inclusion and free speech was presaged by similar protests in the 1980s and 1990s. The author of Can't Stop Won't Stop looks at how culture impacts our understanding of the politics of this polarized moment. Throughout these essays Chang includes the voices of many of the leading activists as he charts how popular voices on the ground and in social media have catalyzed the push for protest and change."-- Provided by publisher

Like the canaries that alerted miners to a poisonous atmosphere, issues of race point to underlying problems in society that ultimately affect everyone, not just minorities. Addressing these issues is essential. Ignoring racial differences--race blindness--has failed. Focusing on individual achievement has diverted us from tackling pervasive inequalities. Now, in a powerful and challenging book, Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres propose a radical new way to confront race in the twenty-first century. Given the complex relationship between race and power in America, engaging race means engaging standard winner-take-all hierarchies of power as well. Terming their concept "political race," Guinier and Torres call for the building of grass-roots, cross-racial coalitions to remake those structures of power by fostering public participation in politics and reforming the process of democracy. Their illuminating and moving stories of political race in action include the coalition of Hispanic and black leaders who devised the Texas Ten Percent Plan to establish equitable state college admissions criteria, and the struggle of black workers in North Carolina for fair working conditions that drew on the strength and won the support of the entire local community. The aim of political race is not merely to remedy racial injustices, but to create truly participatory democracy, where people of all races feel empowered to effect changes that will improve conditions for everyone. In a book that is ultimately not only aspirational but inspirational, Guinier and Torres envision a social justice movement that could transform the nature of democracy in America.

Moving the conversation about race forward into action.

Independent, grassroots liberation-journalism focused on politics, power, race, policing, mass incarceration, organizing, and change. No ads, no spam, no hate or trolls because we are 100% supported by members like you. Click to read The North Star with Shaun King, a Substack publication with hundreds of thousands of readers.

Independent, grassroots liberation-journalism focused on politics, power, race, policing, mass incarceration, organizing, and change. No ads, no spam, no hate or trolls because we are 100% supported by members like you. Click to read The North Star with Shaun King, a Substack publication with hundreds of thousands of readers.

As Black History Month begins, these podcasts shed light on the issues faced by Black Americans, while also sharing important stories of resistance and joy.

Join Shaun as he unpacks the most important stories of injustice, racism and corruption, but also tells you who's fighting back and how you can support and join them with practical action steps.

"Our national conversation about anti-Black racism made 2020 a pivotal year - painful for many cathartic for others memorable to all. Now a new year brings new opportunities to listen to Black voices and stories. Pick up one of these titles to deepen your knowledge of our country's past and join the chorus of voices advocating for a better future."