#charlestonsyllabus

Full Resource List here: http://bit.ly/BLMresources

This selection of #blacklivesmatter related library, teaching, and community resources was originally posted on 7/8/16. on 7/11/16, it was replaced with a google doc version linked above for easier updating and maintenance. Contact us with any additions or comments.

Black Lives Matter #herstory and guiding principles

Black Lives Matter Syllabus

Charleston Syllabus

Ferguson Syllabus

Curriculum for White Americans To Educate Themselves on Race and Racism–From Ferguson To Charleston

Black Lives Matter web archive (Archive-It.org)

Black Lives Matter collection (Internet archive)

Teaching With the News: Black Lives Matter, Continuing the Civil Rights Movement

Talking to Kids about Racism and Justice (Oakland Public Library)

Black Lives Matter Booklist for Teens (Hennepin County Public Library)

Black Lives Matter Resource Series (Oakland Public Library)

Picture Books to Help Kids Talk about Racism

Picture Books about Civil Rights

Racial Equity in the Library

Inclusive Library: More than a Diverse Collection

We Need Diverse Books

New York Public Library Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Libguides:

Teachers for Social Justice

San Francisco Public Schools

Wellesley College

Duquesne University

Gustavus Adolphus College

Arizona University

Michigan State University

Madison Area Technical College

University of Southern California

Northfield Mount Hermon School

Framingham State University

University of South Carolina Upstate

Police Encounter Rights and Safety Resources:

What to do instead of calling the police Syllabus/guide

ACLU Know Your Rights: When you are stopped by police

ACLU Know Your Rights: Demonstrations and Protests

ACLU Know Your Rights: Taking Photographs

What to Say When the Police Tell You To Stop Filming Them

Anti-Violence Project Safety Tips for Police Violence and Hate Violence

Staying Safe and Sexy at the Queer Beach

Bearing Witness Guide: Filming Police Encounters

Stop and Frisk Watch App

Contact Your Elected Officials

Organizations and Activism:

CampaignZero

Audre Lorde Project

Sylvia Rivera Law Project

Live Free

FaithForJustice

Urban Cusp

SayTheirNames

Color of Change

Racial Equity Tools

Black Youth Project

Police Reform Organizing Project

Southern Poverty Law Center

NAACP Legal Defense Fund

Fierce NYC

Communities United for Police Reform (NYC)

Thrive Washington

Race Conscious

Showing Up For Racial Justice

WetheProtestors

Advancement Project

Self-Care, Trauma, and Understanding Tragedy in the News:

ColorLines Self-Care Resources

Helping Kids Cope With Media Coverage of War and Traumatic Events

Resources for Talking With Kids about Tragedies

Activist Trauma Support

Breaking News Consumers’ Handbook on Active Shooting Incidents

“Here is a list of readings that educators can use to broach conversations in the classroom about the horrendous events that unfolded in Charleston, South Carolina on the evening of June 17, 2015. These readings provide valuable information about the history of racial violence in this country and contextualize the history of race relations in South Carolina and the United States in general. They also offer insights on race, racial identities, global white supremacy and black resistance. All readings are arranged by date of publication. This list is not meant to be exhaustive–you will find omissions. Please check out the Charleston Syllabus book for additional reading suggestions.

#Charlestonsyllabus was conceived by Chad Williams (@Dr_ChadWilliams), Associate Professor of African and Afro-American Studies at Brandeis University. With the help of Kidada Williams (@KidadaEWilliams), the hashtag started trending on Twitter on the evening of June 19, 2015. The following list was compiled and organized by AAIHS blogger Keisha N. Blain (@KeishaBlain) with the assistance of Melissa Morrone (@InfAgit), Ryan P. Randall (@foureyedsoul), and Cecily Walker (@skeskali). Special thanks to everyone who contributed suggestions via Twitter. Please click here to read more about the origin and significance of #Charlestonsyllabus.

I’m taking it upon myself to learn more about the black and African-American experience in the United States and elsewhere. I think often about being mixed-race, but I am white-passing, and truth be told, though most of my friends have been mixed, few have been black or African-American. I feel it is a duty to try and understand the American “experience” (whatever that is) as much as possible, which I suppose is why I studied history in school. I feel a need to open my heart and mind, and not only indulge myself in Dickens and science fiction, in fantasy and literary novels by promising (usually white) authors, but incorporate more titles by and about other people of color, not just Native/First Nations authors. 

When I was younger I set a task to read alphabetically all of the adult fiction in the library. I had read the entire crime section this way previously, and knew I felt more comfortable on a set path (which is why I always come up with reading “programs” for myself now). Anyways, I read a lot of Chinua Achebe’s books, and realized then that there are many voices to hear, and sometimes hearing one completely unlike my own opens up new spaces for thinking and empathy. But I feel like—after graduate school especially, when it took a great deal to even come back to pleasure reading—I lost that knowledge. I am reclaiming it and remembering it now.

One resource I plan to use (as I merge this plan with my current Dickens reading project, currently on hold but due back this fall) is #Charlestonsyllabus, a great reading list compiled by the African American Intellectual History Society in the wake of the violent terrorism attack in Charleston. I’m hopeful it will guide me to greater understanding. Life is learning.

An incredible project inspired by the #FergusonSyllabus. 

“In the coming days, weeks and months, we will relive the horror and trauma of the Charleston shooting. Funerals will take place. Irrevocably shattered families will bury their loved ones. Tears of unspeakable grief will be shed. Politicians will posture about the Confederate flag, change the subject on gun control, and patronizingly laud black people for their ability to forgive. A trial will take place. Pundits and self-professed experts will subject us to more explanations of why Dylann Roof did what he did. The soul wrenching details of Roof’s actions will be made public for us to hear and see. We will be told that his execution is necessary for closure, knowing full well that when it comes to atrocities committed against African Americans, closure all too often means sweeping history under the rug.

“So much of our conversations about race are rooted in emotions and feelings and not knowledge and facts. What I was hearing on the news lacked historical substance. The Charleston shooting is connected to so many important issues — the history of slave resistance, the history of racial violence during Reconstruction, the history of the AME church, the desires of black people for freedom and self-determination, the role of the black church in Charleston and how it served as a place of spiritual sustenance and radical activism, and the history of the Confederate flag. People are often not willing to search for the necessary knowledge to have informed conversations.

Watching the news only compounded his sorrow and frustration. Public conversations about the shooting were generally devoid of the kind of historical knowledge that frames contemporary racial violence and its deep roots.

Two days later Mr. Williams decided that he wouldn’t just sit and stew. He thought about how another historian, Marcia Chatelain, an assistant professor at Georgetown University, had responded to the events inFerguson, Mo., last August by creating the #FergusonSyllabus hashtag on Twitter. That hashtag spawned conversations about race, violence, and history.

Mr. Williams wondered if he could do the same. He got on his computer to see if someone else had beaten him to the punch. To his surprise, no one had.

"I naïvely expect that someone had created a syllabus, given the way hashtags move like rapid fire on social media," Mr. Williams said.

So he decided he’d do the work. His project started with a series of tweets.