Race & Culture

Last Updated: February 7, 2025

Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race? by Keith Boykin

In Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race? Keith Boykin sets the record straight, explaining why such all-too-common assertions are simply not true. Effortlessly combining history, pop culture, and stories from his own life, Boykin lays out the truth about anti-Black racism and white supremacy in America. Racist lies and misbeliefs just don’t seem to go away-but with the help of this book, they also won’t go unchallenged.

New Prize for These Eyes by Juan Williams

Williams brilliantly traces the arc of this new civil rights era, from Obama to Charlottesville to January 6th and a Confederate flag in the Capitol. An essential read for activists, historians, and anyone passionate about America’s future, New Prize for These Eyes is more than a recounting of history. It is a forward-looking call to action, urging Americans to get in touch with the progress made and hurdles yet to be overcome.

The Barn by Wright Thompson

A shocking and revelatory account of the murder of Emmett Till that lays bare how forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta in the long lead-up to the crime, and how the truth was erased for so long.

By the Fire We Carry by Rebecca Nagle

A powerful work of reportage and American history in the vein of Caste and How the Word Is Passed that braids the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation’s earliest days, and a small-town murder in the ’90s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land over a century later.

The Indian Card by Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz

A groundbreaking and deeply personal exploration of Tribal enrollment, and what it means to be Native American in the United States. With this intimate perspective of the ongoing fight for Native sovereignty, The Indian Card sheds light on what it looks like to find a deeper sense of belonging.