Multitopic Resources

Voice of Witness (VOW) is an oral history nonprofit that advances human rights by amplifying the voices of people impacted by—and fighting against—injustice. VOW’s work is driven by the transformative power of the story, and by a strong belief that social justice cannot be achieved without deep listening and learning from those marginalized by systems of oppression. Through our programming, we work with communities to ensure that: voices of marginalized and silenced communities are centered in narrative contexts (education, media, movements, and policymaking); students and communities have the tools and training to tell their own stories through oral history; storytelling practitioners and institutions use ethics-driven methodologies to gather narratives. The VOW Book Series depicts human rights issues through the edited oral histories of people, VOW narrators, who are most deeply impacted and at the heart of solutions to address injustice. The series explores issues of race-, gender-, and class-based inequity through the lenses of personal narrative. The VOW Education Program brings unheard stories and our ethical oral history methodology to classrooms and organizations across the US, connecting students, educators, and advocates with training and tools for storytelling in order to advance social change. Through our partnerships and consulting, VOW offers expert storytelling and program support to nonprofits, activists, schools, foundations, and more. These customized projects and workshops use VOW’s award-winning approach to promote empathy, build relationships, and amplify community voices.

Disability Justice by leahlakshmi - a community-created list : Books and articles and films by disabled, d(D)eaf, chronically ill and neurodivergent majority Black and brown people, many queer and trans, writing about fighting ableism, disabled lives, political struggles, communities and histories, sharing skills and organizing tactics and art, making revolution. This list was created by writer and disability justice cultural worker and organizer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, brownstargirl.org. If you share this publicly, please do so with credit.

The Texas Digital Library stands against racism and with those working to end systemic injustices. We grieve the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others lost to racist and often police-inflicted violence, as well as the disproportionate number of COVID-19 deaths within minoritized communities. As we think about our own institutional responsibilities to our members, our staff, and our profession, TDL staff have been compiling resources on anti-racist work, particularly those relevant to libraries and archives. We hope that they will help us collectively find ways to interrogate and improve our practices that exclude and minimize Black and Brown communities and that perpetuate unjust systems. We recognize our own institutional shortcomings in this regard, and we want the Black and Brown workers in our member libraries to know that TDL sees you and strives to support you and amplify your voices. We invite you to share additional resources with us so that we can share them back to our communities. This might include anti-racist work that your library or archives is doing or has done, or books and other media that you have found useful in your work or personal explorations

To understand our present, we must understand our past. These programs will give you a closer look at the history of racism and injustice against black Americans that lead us to this moment.

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.