Antiracism & Social Justice Resources

"The 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was supposed to be a stepping stone, a policy innovation announced by the White House designed to put pressure on Congress for a broader, lasting set of legislative changes. Those changes never materialized, and the people who hoped to benefit from them have been forced to navigate a tense and contradictory policy landscape ever since, haunted by these unfulfilled promises. Legal Phantoms tells their story. After Congress failed to pass a comprehensive immigration bill in 2013, President Obama pivoted in 2014 to supplementing DACA with a deferred action program (known as DAPA) for the parents of citizens and lawful permanent residents and a DACA expansion (DACA ) in 2014. But challenges from Republican-led states prevented even these programs from going into effect. Interviews with would-be applicants, immigrant-rights advocates, and government officials reveal how such failed immigration-reform efforts continue to affect not only those who had hoped to benefit, but their families, communities, and the country in which they have made an uneasy home. Out of the ashes of these lost dreams, though, people find their own paths forward through uncharted legal territory with creativity and resistance"--

"This book will contribute to the discourse on ways of increasing anti-racism, empowerment, and representation in the LIS field and beyond. It continues in the civil rights legacy of African American librarian pioneers including Dr. E.J. Josey, Dr. Virginia Lacy Jones, Dr. Carla Hayden, and Dr. Eliza Atkins Gleason"--

"Black and Queer on Campus is a ground-breaking account of queer Black experiences on college campuses, based on 65 interviews with Black LGBTQ students"--

"Explores the surprising and complicated legacy of the brilliant strategist of the civil rights movement - Bayard Rustin"--

"Following the killing of George Floyd in 2020, a moral panic gripped the US and UK. To atone for an alleged history of racism, statues were torn down and symbols of national identity attacked. Across universities, fringe theories became the new orthodoxy, with a cadre of activists backed by university technocrats adopting a binary worldview of moral certainty, sin and deconstructive redemption through Western self-erasure. This hard-hitting book surveys these developments for the first time. It unpacks and challenges the theories and arguments deployed by 'decolonizers' in a university system now characterized by garbled leadership and illiberal groupthink. The desire to question the West's sense of itself, deconstruct its narratives, and overthrow its institutional order is an impulse that, ironically, was underpinned by a more confident and assured Western hegemony, which is now waning and under great strain. If its light continues to dim, who or what will carry the torch for human freedom and progress?"

By Juan-Andrés Fuentes Migration and citizenship have become increasingly relevant topics of discussion both nationally and internationally. For instance, last February, the Albanian Congress appro…

Ageism and aging are getting more attention, due in part to the media’s unabashed negative commentary about the age of those running in the Presidential election, but also because gerontologi…

The National Women's History Alliance has designated the 2024 Women's History Month theme as "Women Who Advocate for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion”, recognizing women who work to “eliminate bias and discrimination entirely from our lives and institutions” and who are “committed to embracing every

Mychal Threets’ sudden rise to fame as a pusher of ‘library joy’ isn’t over despite his exit from his job to focus on himself

There are many benefits to this innovation.

The Dee J. Kelly Law Library in conjunction with Texas A&M Law's Women of Color Collective (WOCC) curated a book display honoring Women's History Month. The display, entitled Courageous Voices: Women of Color in Legal Leadership, highlights several women of color who were pioneers in the legal field. From federal and state court judges to legislators and academics, the display chronicles their achievements and features scholarly works from the library's collection detailing their pursuits. From Pauli Murray and Constance Baker Motley to Patsy Takemoto Mink and Sonia Sotomayor among many others, the exhibit celebrates these pioneering legal leaders. Visit the library's Reading Room to view the display now through the end of March.

A look at how an 1862 act impacted Native lands and eventually led to UA's fossil fuel use despite climate pledges.

California sheriff’s deputies fatally shot a teenager with autism who was holding a gardening tool over the weekend, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and a family attorney said.

The American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has released new data documenting book challenges throughout the United States, finding that challenges of unique titles surged 65% in 2023 compared to 2022 numbers, reaching the highest level ever documented by ALA. Read the full announcement. OIF documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship, more than the previous two years combined (2,571 in 2022; 1,651 in 2021), as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources in 2023.

There was celebration at a press conference in Berkeley a day after Berkeley’s City Council voted unanimously to adopt an ordinance giving the title of the land to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust.

The 519’s Glossary of Terms, facilitating shared understandings around equity, diversity, inclusion and awareness.

"Confronting White Nationalism in Libraries is a resource by and for library workers to use when bigoted groups try to organize in our communities. We believe that sharing common experiences can shed light on the truth and promote learning. Through actual scenarios that our libraries have encountered, we suggest ways in which library workers can use tools we already have at our disposal to resist white nationalism - whatever our position in the library. There is a significant body of literature addressing racism in libraries (and this toolkit is part of that overall work), but the toolkit's specific focus is on responding to the social movement of white nationalism through our library work."--Page 4

"Struggle and Solidarity presents seven key pieces of federal legislation and demonstrates how public policies--even when not explicitly mental health related--can shape social determinants and improve mental health"--

As seen on CBS This Morning, award-winning attorney Ben Crump exposes a heinous truth in Open Season: Whether with a bullet or a lengthy prison sentence, America is killing black people and justifying it legally. While some deaths make headlines, most are personal tragedies suffered within families and communities. Worse, these killings are done one person at a time, so as not to raise alarm. While it is much more difficult to justify killing many people at once, in dramatic fashion, the result is the same-genocide.--

"This book is a collection of voices that persist in a profession that still lags behind in hearing them. We share these stories because the profession is enriched by the stories and the lawyers who tell them. This book is a form of virtual mentoring to build up the next generation of woman advocates so that they, too, may add their stories. In this book, we provide information about the status of women in the legal profession, and stories about identifying and overcoming bias and the hidden hazards in the practice of law, for men and women, while addressing the business of law. The stories in this book then go on to explain the value of being true to ourselves, establishing unique career paths, and finding guideposts and beacons to help enlighten us along the way to success"--

"Librarianship has been conceptualized as a vocation or calling--rather than a profession--since the 1800s. Within this historical context, librarians are encouraged to think of ourselves as possessing a natural disposition to showing perpetual engagement, enthusiasm, and self-regulation in pursuit of our shared vocation. These assumptions about the profession can sometimes shield us from introspective criticism, but they can also prevent us from recognizing and managing the systemic occupational issues that afflict us. Academic Librarian Burnout can help librarians develop the agency to challenge the assumptions and practices that have led to so much professional burnout. In five thorough parts, it offers ways to discuss burnout in our work environments, studies burnout's nature and causes, and provides preventative intervention and mitigation strategies: Reframing Burnout; Conditions that Promote Burnout; Lived Experiences; Individual Responses to Burnout; and Organizational Responses to Burnout. Chapters explore the relationship of burnout in academic libraries and illness, intersectionality, workload, managerial approaches, and more, while offering real-life stories and ways for both individuals and organizations to address the symptoms and causes of burnout. The emotional, physical, and mental investment we require of librarianship--to go above and beyond to serve the ever--evolving needs of our patrons while perennially justifying our existence to library stakeholders-can come at the expense of our well-being. Academic Librarian Burnout addresses unsustainable work environments and preserves and celebrates the unique contributions of librarians"--

The Purpose The Mansfield Rule is a structured certification process designed to ensure all talent at participating law firms and legal departments have a fair and equal opportunity to advance into leadership. Mansfield is focused on broadening the talent pool for consideration, including those historically underrepresented in the legal profession, to facilitate transparent leadership pathways.  Read More...

The DEI Podcast at Notre Dame Law School explores concepts of diversity, equity, inclusion, culture, belonging, and justice as they arise in law and key social and cultural issues. The podcast is hosted by Max Gaston, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Notre Dame Law School.

In this edition of Behind the Bindings, discover tools that you can use for researching Black history in the Law Journal Library!

Federal law rules the land when it comes to border enforcement, but local governments can help.

Man convicted of killing Black transgender woman in the nation's first gender identity-based hate crime trial.

Tribal climate action plans are being stymied by state-owned land within reservation borders.

The urgency of the green transition hasn’t made tribal concerns any less important.

State senators voted Monday to force teachers to "out'' students who want to be identified by a different gender to their parents.