Book Displays

The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery brought attention to the racist policies and systems that engender violence (both sudden and systemic, physical and attitudinal) against Black people in the United States. The protests in 2020-21 are not just in response to these most recent killings – they are in response to the systemic racism that is woven through our society. To truly act in a way that will disrupt and dismantle that system requires antiracist actions.

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi wrote in How to Be an Antiracist (2019), "Being an antiracist requires persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular self-examination."

Below you will find resources (books, videos, articles, podcasts, etc.) available through JMU Libraries to help you educate yourself on the past to understand the present, to amplify and listen to the voices of those affected by racism, and to confront the current and ongoing injustices in the United States.

This online book display was created in late May 2020 by the JMU Libraries’ Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and other staff and faculty in the JMU Libraries. We will continue to update it -- most recently updated in June 2023.

For more on racism in the United States and in Virginia, please these other resources created by JMU Libraries faculty and staff:

• Contextualizing Anti-Asian Racism in the United States: Then and Now virtual and in-person book display, March 2021
• Understanding Black Lives Matter virtual and in-person book display, October 2016
• Still I Rise: Black Lives Matter virtual and in-person book display, December 2017
• Black and White on Bluestone Hill: JMU's Racial History in the Archives, virtual and in-person exhibit, 2018
• Racial Terror: Lynching in Virginia, ongoing research project

Special thanks to these people and groups for doing the work to compile the lists which inspired and informed this display: