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SKYCTC Learning Commons

Diversity

Resources for diversity topics in SKYCTC courses.

Learning Commons Staff Picks for Black History Month 2025

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Roots - Recommended by Taylor Pryor, Writing Specialist

Roots is a groundbreaking story of history and family that galvanized the nation and created an extraordinary political, racial, social, and cultural dialogue. It also won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

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November Blues - Recommended by Taylor Daniel, Student Worker

A teenaged boy's death in a hazing accident has lasting effects on his pregnant girlfriend and his guilt-ridden cousin, who gives up a promising music career to play football during his senior year in high school.

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Recommended by Ashley Helmes, Student Worker

Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide, capturing the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right.

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Invisible Man - Recommended by Ryan Dowell, Librarian

Describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which the narrator is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion.

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The Birds of Opulence - Recommended by Gulnisa Karadshayeva, Math Specialist

A lyrical exploration of love and loss, The Birds of Opulence centers on several generations of women in a bucolic southern black township as they live with and sometimes surrender to madness. Crystal Wilkinson currently teaches at the University of Kentucky and is the 2021 Kentucky Poet Laureate.

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The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story - Recommended by Renee Gill, Student Worker

A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present.

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The Langston Hughes reader - Recommended by Kyle Threet, Writing Coach

First published in 1958, this compilation of the writings of Langston Hughes is drawn from every category of his prodigious literary achievement. It combines highlights of the novels, stories, plays, poems, songs, and essays that have established his commanding position in world literature. 

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Yoga for Everyone - Recommended by Jackie Travis, Tutor Coordinator

Written by yoga teacher, social justice activist, and leading voice of the Yoga for All movement Dianne Bondy, this book offers yoga for everyone, regardless of their shape, size, ethnicity, or level of ability. You can do all 50 poses and perform all 16 sequences for one singular experience that focuses on specific physical and mental issues.

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Hidden Figures - Recommended by Kathryne LeFevre, Director of the Learning Commons

This book tells the true story of four African-American female mathematicians at NASA who helped achieve some of the greatest moments in our space program.

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Affrilachia - Recommended by Esther French, Librarian

A groundbreaking book of poetry at the intersection of Appalachian and African American literature.

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A History of Blacks in Kentucky - Recommended by Rob Castor, CIT Tutor

 

Volume 1 covers From slavery to segregation, 1760-1891  by Marion B. Lucas, volume 2 is In pursuit of equality, 1890-1980 / by George C. Wright

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Between the World and Me - Recommended by Juan Hernandez-Munoz

Through a series of questions to his adolescent son in a letter, the author offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men.

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The Trouble Between Us - Recommended by Michael Nichols, Writing Tutor

Explores why a racially integrated women's liberation movement did not develop in the United States.

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Communion: The Female Search For Love - Recommended by Shari Claus, STEM Tutor

bell hooks explores the ways ideas about women and love were changed by the feminist movement, by women's full participation in the workforce, and by the culture of self-help, and reveals how women of all ages can bring love into every aspect of their lives, for all the years of their lives.

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James Baldwin: Collected Essays - Recommended by Tate Allen, Tutor

James Baldwin was a uniquely prophetic voice in American letters. His brilliant and provocative essays made him the literary voice of the Civil Rights Era, and they continue to speak with powerful urgency to us today.

Featured African-American Authors

Black Ink

Spanning over 250 years of history, Black Ink traces black literature in America.

Buy Black

Examines the role American Black women play in Black consumption in the US and worldwide, with a focus on their pivotal role in packaging Black feminine identity since the 1960s.

Reach

A timely and important compilation of first-person accounts by black men describes a defining moment in each of these black men's lives which motivated them to give back.

The Birds of Opulence

A lyrical exploration of love and loss, The Birds of Opulence centers on several generations of women in a bucolic southern black township as they live with and sometimes surrender to madness.

Fragile

Cheryl R. Hopson’s poetry shows the influence of years of reading, living, thinking through and imagining what it means to be a girl and woman, a person of color, a Southerner, a feminist scholar of working-class origins, and a poet.

The 1619 Project

In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years.

Affrilachia

A groundbreaking book of poetry at the intersection of Appalachian and African American literature.

How to Be an Antiracist

Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism--and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other.

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Their Eyes Were Watching God

An enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

The moving and beautiful autobiography of a talented black woman.

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Becoming

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by a former First Lady of the United States.

Invisible Man

The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be.

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Gifted Hands

Ben Carson, M.D., works medical miracles. Today, he's one of the most celebrated neurosurgeons in the world. In Gifted Hands, he tells of his inspiring story.

The Hate U Give

Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. 

Training School for Negro Girls

Unapologetic and resilient, these women challenge monolithic assumptions of black identity.

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Native Son

Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral.

Gone Home

In telling the stories of African Americans living and working in Appalachian coal towns, Brown offers a sweeping look at race, identity, changes in politics and policy, and black migration in the region and beyond.

Go Tell It on the Mountain

This novel brings Harlem and the black experience vividly to life, as it starkly contrasts two generations of an embattled black family.

Kindred

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement.

We Want to Do More Than Survive

Educator Bettina Love argues that the U.S educational system is maintained by and profits from the suffering of children of color.

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race

Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today.

Just Mercy

A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice--from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.

Under the Skin

Pulitzer prize finalist author discusses racial health disparities in America, revealing the toll racism takes on individuals and the health of our nation.

A Promised Land

Biography of Barack Obama.

For Black Girls Like Me

I am a girl but most days I feel like a question mark. Makeda can't help wondering: What would it feel like to grow up with a family that looks like me? Through singing, dreaming, and writing secret messages back and forth with Lena, Makeda might just carve a small place for herself in the world.

Stay Woke : A People's Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter

The essential guide to understanding how racism works and how racial inequality shapes black lives, ultimately offering a road-map for resistance for racial justice advocates and antiracists.

African-American General Resources

Four Hundred Souls

A chorus of extraordinary voices tells the epic story of the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present.

Black Fatigue

This is the first book to define and explore Black fatigue, the intergenerational impact of systemic racism on the physical and psychological health of Black people--and explain why and how society needs to collectively do more to combat its pernicious effects.

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Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice - A-H

The Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice contains over 300 entries alphabetically arranged for straightforward and convenient use by scholars and general readers alike. This reference is a comprehensive and systematic collection of designated entries that describe, in detail, important diversity and social justice themes.

White Fragility

In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

Dimensions of Blackness

A multidimensional approach captures the complexities of African American racial identity.

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Racism in America: A Reader

The excerpts in this volume--culled from works of history, law, sociology, medicine, economics, critical theory, philosophy, art, and literature--are an invitation to understand anti-Black racism through the eyes of our most incisive commentators.

African American Foodways

Ranging over the progression from seventeenth-century West African fare to contemporary fusion dishes using "soul food" ingredients, this book provides an introduction to many aspects of African American foodways.

The Black West

Understanding of the vital role played by African American men and women on America's early frontiers.

African American Arts

Explores the role of African American arts in shaping the future, and further informing new directions we might take in honoring and protecting the success of African Americans in the U.S.

Race and the Obama Administration

The election of Barack Obama marked a critical point in American political and social history.

The Spirit of Soul Food

Soul food has played a critical role in preserving Black history, community, and culinary genius.

Juneteenth

A scholarly book to delve into the history behind Juneteenth.

Black Lives Matter and Music

Black Lives Matter and Music is a collection of critical studies that provokes us to examine how we teach, how we conduct research, and ultimately, how we should think about the ways that black struggle, liberation, and identity have evolved in the United States and around the world.

Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement

Speaking to the critical pedagogical need to teach civil rights history accurately and effectively, this volume goes beyond the usual focus on iconic leaders of the 1950s and 1960s to examine the broadly configured origins, evolution, and outcomes of African Americans' struggle for freedom.

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Out of the Shadows

The original essays in this comprehensive collection examine the lives and sports of famous and not-so-famous African American male and female athletes from the nineteenth century to today.

The Coretta Scott King Awards

The Coretta Scott King Awards: 1970-2004 celebrates 35 years of African-American contributions to children's literature.

Black Hollywood

A visionary photography book that brings together the best of classic Hollywood with today's iconic Black entertainers.