African American Studies

As institutional members of the American Library Association (ALA) and Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the Library stands with its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

ACRL is dedicated to creating diverse and inclusive communities in the Association and in academic and research libraries. This core commitment permeates the work of the Association, cutting across all ACRL sections, committees, interest and discussion groups, and communities of practice. The Association will acknowledge and address historical racial inequities; challenge oppressive systems within academic libraries; value different ways of knowing; and identify and work to eliminate barriers to equitable services, spaces, resources, and scholarship. ACRL Plan for Excellence, Revised to include Core Commitment November 2018. From ACRL's Equity Diversity and Inclusion Guide. 

The Library offers this reading list committed to addressing systemic racism in our community.

Academic Journals

Curriculum and Assessments:

• Communities of Color Organizational Self-Assessment:

• Beloved Community Equity Audit

• Project READY, an open-access racial equity curriculum for librarians (specifically developed for youth services librarians, but relevant for all library environments)

• Chart for measuring an organization's anti-racism efforts

Additional resources from the web:

• Institutionalized Racism: A Syllabus

• COVID-19 and Racism (LibGuide from Vanderbilt University Law Library)

• “When black people are in pain, white people just join book clubs” by Tre Johnson

• “106 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice” by Corrine Shuttack

• “The Limitations Of An Anti-Racist Reading List” by Linda Holmes

• “Dear White People: Here Are 10 Actions You Can Take To Promote Racial Justice In the Workplace” by Dana Brownlee

• “A Farewell Letter to DEI Work” by Tatiana McInnis

• “Why Don’t You Want to Keep Us?” By April Hathcock

The collaborators on this guide have attempted to bring together select quality, relevant resources for the anti-racist issues in this guide, but we are not immune from the limits and hidden biases of our own privileges and perspectives.

We welcome and greatly appreciate any feedback and suggestions for the guide, particularly from the perspectives and experiences of the marginalized groups listed and not listed here.

Many thanks to the William Madison Randall Library at the University of North Carolina Wilmington for their LibGuide (https://library.uncw.edu/guides/antiracism) on which this list is based and to the resources shared from Anti-Racism in Academic Libraries panel for the additional resources.