Race, Racism & History

June 11, 2020

People are marching against racism and police violence. Hundreds of thousands of Americans marched in the streets for Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a police officer. 

Now is an excellent time for everyone to educate themselves on the history of racial oppression around the world. For those searching for answers, it’s important to understand the history and context of racism. 

We have compiled a Book List on this subject with a common mission: to better inform our opinions, offer insight into the perspectives and lives of others, and mainly, to give voice to those who have often been silenced.

1 Outline of US History

Outline of US History

U.S. Department of State | History

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An outline of U.S. History from its settlement through 2008.

2 Pop Culture vs. Real America

Pop Culture vs. Real America

U.S. Department of State | Educational

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A textbook designed to seperate fictional views of America (from popular culture) from the reality.

3 About America: The Constitution of the United States of America

About America: The Constitution of the United States of America

U.S. Department of State | History (Academic)

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A textbook meant to translate the older language of the US constitution into easy-to-understand concepts.

4 The U.S. Supreme Court: Equal Justice Under the Law

The U.S. Supreme Court: Equal Justice Under the Law

U.S. Department of State | Sociology

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This revision of "The U.S. Supreme Court: Equal Justice Under the Law" is a collection of essays that explains how the highest court in the United States functions. It has been updated to reflect the appointments of new justices and key officers, and recent, significant decisions of the court.

5 Twelve Years A Slave

Twelve Years A Slave

Solomon Northup | Fiction Classics

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The classic book, Twelve Years A Slave, by Solomon Northup.

6 The Souls of Black Folk

The Souls of Black Folk

W.E.B DuBois | Psychology & Culture

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A description and analysis of Black Folks during and Coming Out of Slavery

7 Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves

Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves

Anonymous. | Anthropology

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The slave narrative is a literary form which grew out of the written accounts of enslaved Africans in Britain and its colonies, including the later United States, Canada and Caribbean nations. Some six thousand former slaves from North America and the Caribbean gave accounts of their lives during the 18th and 19th centuries, with about 150 narratives published as separate books or pamphlets. In the 1930s in the United States, during the Great Depression, additional oral narratives on life during slavery were collected by writers sponsored and published by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration.

8 Bloody Kansas

Bloody Kansas

Farley W. Jenkins, Jr. | Fiction

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The Reverend Jacob Channing is a man on a mission: To abolish the practice of slavery once and for all. To that end, he leads a settlement of the Kansas Territory, but so does a prominent slave-holding Missourian. As John Brown's raid sets everyone on edge, the battle for Kansas turns bloody. Download this FREE e-book today!

9 Bible Of The Freeborn American Patriot

Bible Of The Freeborn American Patriot

H.L. Dowless | History

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Read this work to discover the absolute truth in regard to American history that your Government has struggled to withhold from public possession. Find out how and why America was ever discovered to begin with. Learn what the true reasons are that the colonists revolted against Great Britain, rather than only accept what the propaganda machine had ordained. Find out about the war in US congress between those who desired the banks and the corporations to stand with no checks and balances, and those who stood between their self-serving efforts, the people on the ground, in the name of the US Constitution. Conclude in this first volume with a clear comprehension as to why knowing the truth even matters in our present day.

10 Bible Of The Freeborn American Patriot Book 2

Bible Of The Freeborn American Patriot Book 2

H.L. Dowless | History

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Book one carries researchers and readers from the earliest beginnings of America, down through the Buchanan Administration, through the bombardment of the ship, Star Of The West. This specific intentional violation of presidential order for the ship to hold was the true reason for the US Civil War to initiate. Read on to discover who Lincoln really was. Find out the true reasons being withheld for the war beginning, how it was fought, and the true reasons how/why it ended. Discover how slavery continued on from 1865 down to the year 1940. Discover how from 1940 down into our own day, the banks, the corporations, and the US congress have enslaved the American people. Most importantly, discover how the developments of our own day are leading The US into a coming holocaust.

11 Treason: The Violation of Trust

Treason: The Violation of Trust

Janet Hudgins | History

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"Treason" is the story of William Palmer and his descendants who were among the first settlers in colonial North America. They were Puritans in the 17th Century, Quakers in the 18th Century, part of the Loyalist Diaspora to Shelburne, Nova Scotia after the American Revolution, and Canadian soldiers in the trenches of World War I. Treason is about the life and times of the Palmers, of the politic individuals who held sway, and the cause and effect of their use and abuse of power.

12 Steep Descent

Steep Descent

Raul Limington | Politics

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There are a small group of controlling ‘people’ on planet earth who want you dead. They are bored from playing with your emotions for their personal amusement and profit. Soon, you will be be eradicated by a small group of people with a personality disorder that leaves them unable to feel guilt for their barbarity. It seems like a plot for a fiction horror story, but it is reality. It is incredibly easy to stop them and if you don't, you are on the Steep Descent to annihilation. Discover the detour around the Steep Descent.

13 An Address to Free Colored Americans

An Address to Free Colored Americans

Anti-Slavery Convention | History (Academic)

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An important abolitionist document

14 History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest

History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and Other Items of Interest

Edward A Jones | Sociology

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On July 18, 1936, a fascist-led counter-revolutionary army revolt began against the five-year-old Spanish Republic and the coalition of various centrist and progressive parties that had been popularly elected five months before. The coalition was called the Popular Front and included the Communist Party of Spain. The revolt received crucial logistical and material support from fascist regimes in Germany, Italy and Portugal. The German and Italian air forces deployed over Spain and terror-bombed densely populated, working-class neighborhoods in Madrid and Barcelona while submarines blockaded Republican seaports. By November 1936 the situation was desperate. The Spanish Republic pleaded for help against the fascist onslaught. Communists, trade unionists and progressives all over the wo...

15 Terrible Lies/ Terrible Truths

Terrible Lies/ Terrible Truths

John F. Scanlon | Politics

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The American and Israeli people are free and have influence, but we do not control our countries. Our countries are controlled by war plutocrats who are the only existential threat to our democracies, not foreign states and terrorists. - The Oded Yinon Plan 1982 calls for the balkanization of the Middle East by and for the benefit of Israel (Ch. 1). Paragraph 23 describes what Bush and Cheney accomplished with the intentional destruction of Iraq (Ch. 3). - Bush and Cheney in December 2001 intentionally allowed al Qaeda to escape Tora Bora, Afghanistan (Ch. 2). - The Bible timeline and Jewish calendar were manipulated (Ch. 4). - Great recessions II is coming soon to an economy near you (Ch. 6).

16 Pogroms And Other Atrocities

Pogroms And Other Atrocities

Bassam Imam | History

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Until the end of the Second World War, Jews had historically endured countless pogroms, acts of gross injustice, and a lesser number of expulsions throughout Europe. Persecution and isolation were commonly the norm; the Jews were Europe's punching bag (Historical Anti-Semitism). Superstition, ignorance, and outright hatred were powerful forces that led to horrible atrocities against defenseless targets, culminating in the Jewish Holocaust. Although the danger to Europe's Jewish population appears to have decreased insurmountably since the Second World War, anti-Semitism still exists; the situation can change in a blink of an eye.

17 Lessons in Non-violent Civil Disobedience from the life of M. K. Gandhi and his Legacy

Lessons in Non-violent Civil Disobedience from the life of M. K. Gandhi and his Legacy

Arun J. Mehta | History

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There are many armed conflicts going on all around the world everyday. Many countries have amassed so many nuclear weapons that they can destroy all life on earth many times over. The ‘military industrial complex’ and powerful media are manipulating and / or controlling major policies in many democratic and not so democratic governments to spend billions of dollars in acquiring arms and creating conflicts. Life of Mohandās K. Gāndhi can be a good ‘role model’ to study and emulate. How did he mobilize millions of Indians to give up their families and jobs, fight the British without guns and achieve independence for India.

18 Under Three Flags in Cuba

Under Three Flags in Cuba

Adrian Musgrave | History

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George Clarke Musgrave landed in Cuba a warm sympathiser with Spain but for two years he served with the revolutionaries and experienced their suffering. He repeatedly crossed the lines carrying despatches from the insurgent Cuban Government to the Americans and was twice imprisoned, three times wounded, barely rescued from a spy's death and finally arrested and deported under threat of execution

19 When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Hitler!

When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Hitler!

Bill Edwards | History

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Discover the unique prewar, wartime and postwar experiences of everyday people within and connected to one American family that survived World War Two.

20 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Frederick Douglass | Biography

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Autobiographical novel by abolitionist, author, and reformer Frederick Douglass. One of America's most prominent figures in African-American and United States history, Douglass' autobiography historically has been used for teaching the concepts of freedom and social development.

21 High Cotton

High Cotton

P. J. Dunn | Fiction

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High Cotton (a slave's tale) MAAFA, THE AFRICAN HOLOCAUST AND THE SURVIVAL OF A TWELVE YEAR OLD BOY. "Riveting tale of a twelve year old boy kidnapped and sold to Dutch slave traders and his strength, and determination to be free." Kidnapped from his home, along with his brother, sold into slavery, Manni was determined to not only survive, but to overcome the torture and atrocities heaped upon him and his people by the ruthless Yoruba Warriors, then the Dutch slave traders. Somehow, in someway Manni touched the heartstrings of a rough, tough, barbaric ship's captain. But then, he was given over to the humiliation of the slave auction, purchased by a Plantation owner, where he spent the next eight years in servitude to his master. Civil war, southern defeat, emancipation, and he suddenly found himself to be free. He left the plantation and returned to the only other life he knew, the sailing ship, the Albatross.

22 The Economics of Negro Slavery

The Economics of Negro Slavery

Robert Evans Jr. | Economics (Academic)

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A new and interesting angle on the functions of Negro Slavery

23 Up from Slavery: An Autobiography

Up from Slavery: An Autobiography

B.T. Washington | Biography

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Long revered as one of the greatest American autobiographies ever written by the 19th Century African-American businessman, activist, and educator, Booker T. (Taliaferro) Washington. Download the FREE e-Book version today!

24 Uncle Tom's Cabin, Young Folks' Edition

Uncle Tom's Cabin, Young Folks' Edition

Harriet Beecher Stowe | Children's Classics

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This e-book includes the stories of ancient times, and the barter system that existed between masters and slaves. Uncle Tom felt unhappier than ever. He had hoped to at least have a little room that he could keep clean and tidy. But not even the hole he had did he have to himself. He had to share it with five or six others.

25 Life of a Slave Girl

Life of a Slave Girl

herself | Memoirs & Biography

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Reader be assured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, strictly true. I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery; on the contrary, my descriptions fall far short of the facts. I have concealed the names of places, and given persons fictitious names. I had no motive for secrecy on my own account, but I deemed it kind and considerate towards others to pursue this course.