On January 16th the Bryn Mawr Community came together to celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Professor Traci Parker visited classes, spoke at assemblies, and participated in a panel discussion with four Bryn Mawr alumnae. Following is a list of the books that are currently on display in the library for our exhibit, "The Black Freedom Movement—from the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter", which was inspired by the work of Professor Parker, as well as the interests of BMS students. In addition to books, the display features a fascinating selection of newspaper articles (obtained through the Proquest Historical Newspaper database) that document the Baltimore Freedom Movement from 1935 to 2016. Did you know that one of the the first lunch counter sit-ins was held in Baltimore in 1955? Or that the amusement park protest made famous in Hairspray by John Waters was based on a real event at Gwynn Oak Park in Baltimore in 1963? You can read about these events, and many others, in the Edith Hamilton Library or by searching the Proquest Historical Newspaper database.
Publications by our MLK Scholar In Residence, Traci Parker, Ph.D.
“Southern Retail Campaigns and the Struggle for Black Economic Freedom in the 1950s and 1960s”, by Traci Parker in Race and Retail: Consumption Across the Color Line, edited by Mia Bay and Ann Fabian
Current Authors and the Movement
#1960Now: Photographs of Civil Rights Activists and Black Lives Matter Protests (Social Justice Book, Civil Rights Photography Book), by Shelia P. Bright
RaceBrave: new and selected works, by Karsonya Whitehead
A Beautiful Ghetto, by Devin Allen, D. Watkins
The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea, by Christopher J. Lebron
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates
How to Be An Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi
Women and the Movement
We Who Believe in Freedom: The Life and Times of Ella Baker (True Tales for Young Readers) by Lea E. Williams. Baker was an important activist and organizer who is best known for challenging unfair policies as a student at Shaw University. She was a founder of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and involved in several other civil rights organizations.
Claudette Colvin:Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose. (YA) Nine months before Rosa Parks did so, Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white woman. This is her story.
We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March by Cynthia Levinson. (YA) Tells the story of four young people; two boys and two girls, who participated in the Birmingham Children’s March.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Crusader Against Lynching by Elaine Slivinski Lisandrelli. Born a slave, Wells devoted her life to fighting injustice. She was a journalist, educator and one of the founders of the NAACP.
Fight On: Mary Terrell’s Battle for Integration by Dennis Brindell Fradin and Judith Bloom Fradin. A compelling account of the life of activist , Mary Terrell, whose career spanned 60 years. The book is filled with reproductions of archival material.
Shirley Chisholm: Catalyst for Change (Lives of American Women) A succinct biography of the first African -American woman to be elected to Congress and to seriously run for President.
The Life and Legacy of Mary McLeod Bethune by Nancy Ann Zrinyi Long. The fascinating story of Dr. Mary Bethune as told by the author with interviews from her children and former students.
Unbought and Unbossed: Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition by Shirley Chisholm.
Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress speaks out on her life. This expanded 40th anniversary edition delves more deeply into her impact on today’s world.
Freedom's Daughters: The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970 by Lynne Olson. Includes profiles of over sixty women who were crucial to the success of the civil rights movement.
Women, Race and Class by Angela Y. Davis. Prominent activist, Angela Davis, examines how the Women’s Movement has historically been hampered by the biases of its leaders.
Lighting the Fires of Freedom: African American Women in the Civil Rights Movement by Janet Dewart Bell. A collection of oral histories by nine African-American women prominent in the civil rights movement. Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
Mary McLeod Bethune: Building a Better World, Essays and Selected Documents Edited by Audrey McCluskey. “Explores Mary McLeod Bethune in her roles as stateswoman, politician, educational leader, and social visionary. It offers a unique combination of original documentary sources and analysis of Bethune’s life and work.” (from the publisher)
Ain’t I a Woman: Black:Women and Feminism by bell hooks. In hooks’ classic book she examines the impact of sexism and racism on black women.
Hands on the Freedom Plough:Personal Accounts by Women in the SNCC Edited by Faith S. Holsaert, Martha Prescod, Norman Noonan, Judy Richardson et al. Fifty-two women share their stories of working for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the Civil Rights Movement.
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision (Gender and American Culture) by Barbara Ransby. (Age 14 and up) A readable and scholarly biography of one of the most important women in the civil rights movement. Baker was a founder of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and was involved in several other civil rights organizations.
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks, by Jeanne Theoharis
The Civil Rights Movement and Beyond
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., by Clayborne Carson
This book offers King's seldom disclosed views on some of the world's greatest and most controversial figures: John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Lyndon B. Johnson, Mahatma Gandhi, and Richard Nixon. It also paints a rich and moving portrait of a people, a time, and a nation in the face of powerful change.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life (Penguin Lives Biographies) by Marshall Frady
Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, by John Lewis
Congressman John Lewis is an American icon, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president.
March, Books I, II, III, by John Lewis (Graphic format)
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, by Russell Freedman
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective, by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
The Combahee River Collective, a path-breaking group of radical black feminists, was one of the most important organizations to develop out of the antiracist and women’s liberation movements of the 1960s and 70s. In this collection of essays and interviews edited by activist-scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, founding members of the organization and contemporary activists reflect on the legacy of its contributions to Black feminism and its impact on today’s struggles.
Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City, by Antero Pietila
Antero Pietila shows how continued discrimination practices toward African Americans and Jews have shaped the cities in which we now live.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander
by M. Elizabeth Paterra
