Racial Justice and Equity Resources
WE believe
That all people are made in the image and likeness of God, and that all people are equal in God’s sight; that God’s people are called to deconstruct the sinful conditioning of racism that denies equal citizenship to all of God’s people; that through the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying power, people can unlearn and relearn ways of being in the world.
Books to read about what systemic racism is:
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Dr. Beverly Tatum
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Books to read about systemic racism and society:
The New Jim Crow by Dr. Michelle Alexander
The End of Policing by Alex Vitale
Books to read to deconstruct internalized racism:
Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad
Books to read about racism in the modern American Church:
Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the U.S. by Lenny Duncan
Dear White Christians by Jennifer Harvey
The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby
White Awake by Daniel Hill
Books to read about Black liberation theology and womanist theology:
The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone
I Bring the Voices of My People: A Womanist Vision for Racial Reconciliation Chanequa Walker-Barnes
Sisters in the Wilderness by Delores Williams
Sermons and speeches about Black liberation:
“The Death of Evil upon the Seashore” by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Holy Blackness” by Rev. Wil Gafney
If you would like a more comprehensive list that is differentiated based on individual starting places, please check out this resource.