Black Community Support

These resources were compiled by staff in the Division of Diversity, Equity & Educational Achievement and other Black UW–Madison staff in response to and recognition of the impact national, regional and local incidents of racial violence and loss have on UW’s Black community. Our hope is that these resources can provide support as our community members attempt to process and heal mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

To suggest resources to add to this list, please email webmaster@cdo.wisc.edu, and include the title, author and URL of the resource(s) you would like to see added. Last updated April 2021.

Black/African American Affinity Group

This affinity group is intended for UW–Madison faculty and staff who identify as Black, African American and/or Caribbean American.

Affinity Group Gatherings

The Division hosts informal social gatherings monthly during the academic school year that are intended to help faculty and staff with underrepresented and/or marginalized identities come together to build community, make connections and share resources.

Check back for more information about upcoming events.

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Wellness and Mental Health

Music Playlists

Podcasts

Readings & Book Lists

Booklist from “The Anti-Racist Resource Guide” (created by Victoria Alexander, M.Ed.)

The following book list should not be viewed as a definitive reading list but simply a list to reference. For more information on the books, we encourage you to research the titles and the authors.

  • A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Ronald Takaki
  • A People’s History of the United States. Howard Zinn
  • Ain’t I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism. bell hooks
  • An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
  • Assata, an Autobiography. Assata Shakur
  • Bad Feminist. Roxane Gay
  • Becoming. Michelle Obama
  • Being White, Being Good: White Complicity, White Moral Responsibility, and Social Justice Pedagogy. Barbara Applebaum
  • Beloved. Toni Morrison
  • Between the World and Me. Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Patricia Hill Collins
  • Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses. Lawrence Ross
  • Born a Crime: Stories from A South African Childhood. Trevor Noah
  • Coming of Age in Mississippi. Anne Moody
  • Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland. Jonathan Metzel
  • Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower. Brittney Cooper
  • Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. Matthew Desmond
  • For White Folks Who Teach in The Hood… And the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education. Christopher Emdin
  • Giovanni’s Room. James Baldwin
  • Half of a Yellow Sun. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Homegoing. Yaa Gyasi
  • How to be an Anti-Racist. Ibram X Kendi
  • How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
  • I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing. Maya Angelou
  • In Search of Our Mothers Gardens. Alice Walker
  • Just Mercy. Bryan Stevenson
  • Killing Rage: Ending Racism. bell hooks
  • Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Teacher Got Wrong. James Loewen
  • (Graphic Novel) John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell
  • Me and White Supremacy. Layla F. Saad
  • Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. Harriet A. Washington
  • Native Son. Richard Wright
  • No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black & Free in America. Darnell L. Moore
  • No Tea, No Shade. New Writings in Black Queer Studies. E. Patrick Johnson
  • Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, From Furgeson to Flint and Beyond. Marc Lamont Hill
  • Other Side of Paradise. Staceyann Chin
  • Queenie. Candace Carty-Williams
  • Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
  • Real Life. Brandon Taylor
  • Since I Laid my Burden Down. Brontez Purnell
  • Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. Melissa Harris-Perry
  • Sister Outsider. Audre Lorde
  • So You Want To Talk About Race. Ijeoma Oluo
  • Stamped from the Beginning. Ibram X Kendi
  • Student Activism, Politics, and Campus Climate in Higher Education. Demetri L. Morgan, Charles H.F. Davis III
  • Subtle Acts of Exclusion: How to Understand, Identify, and Stop Microaggressions. Tiffany Jana, Michael Baran
  • The Autobiography of Malcolm X
  • The Bluest Eye. Toni Morrison
  • The Burning House: Jim Crow and the Making of Modern America. Anders Walker
  • The Color of Law. Richard Rothstein
  • The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America. Khalil Gilbran Muhammad
  • The Fire Next Time. James Baldwin
  • The Hate You Give. Angie Thomas.
  • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Michelle Alexander
  • The Souls of Black Folk. W.E.B. Du Bois
  • The Summer We Got Free. Mia Mckenzie
  • The Warmth of Other Suns. Isabel Wilkerson
  • The Water Dancer. Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Their Eyes Were Watching God. Zora Neale Hurston
  • Unapologetic: A Black, Queen, and Feminist Mandae for Radical Movements. Charlene A. Carruthers
  • When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in 20th Century America. Ira Katznelson
  • White Fragility: Why It;s So Hard for White People to Talk About Race. Robin DiAngelo
  • Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together In the Cafeteria? Beverly Daniel Tatum
  • Women, Race, & Class. Angela Y. Davis
  • Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, A Biomythography. Audre Lorde

Documentaries & Films

List inspired by “29 Movies, Shows, and Documentaries to Watch to Educate Yourself on Racial Injustice,” article by Ashley Aselleke.

  • 4 Little Girls
  • 3½ Minutes, Ten Bullets
  • 13th: From Slave to Criminal with One Amendment
  • The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
  • Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth
  • Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992
  • Banished by Marcos Williams
  • Beah: A Black Woman Speaks
  • Black 14
  • The Black List: Volume One
  • The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
  • The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975
  • /womyn.:conversations with lesbians of African descent
  • Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of Football
  • Bronx Gothic
  • The Central Park Five
  • Check It
  • Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed
  • Dark Girls
  • Daughters of the Dust
  • The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
  • Dispatches from Cleveland
  • Eyes on the Prize
  • The Force
  • Free Angela & All Political Prisoners
  • Free Cece
  • Freedom Riders
  • The Gospel According to Andre
  • Hidden Colors
  • Holler If You Hear Me: Black and Gay in the Church
  • Hoop Dreams
  • I Am Not Your Negro
  • If Beale Street Could Talk
  • Jewel’s Catch One
  • Just Mercy
  • Kiki
  • LA 92
  • Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992
  • Looking for Langston
  • Maya Angelou: And I Still Rise
  • More Than a Month
  • Mudbound
  • Neon
  • The New Black
  • Pairs Is Burning
  • Slavery by Another Name
  • Soundtrack for a Revolution
  • Stay Woke: the Black Lives Movement
  • Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen
  • Strong Island
  • Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai
  • Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People
  • Tongues Untied
  • Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am
  • Treasure: From Tragedy to Trans Justice Mapping a Detroit Story
  • T-Rex: The Claressa Shields Story
  • True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality
  • What Happened, Miss Simone?
  • When the Levees Broke
  • When They See Us
  • Whose Streets?
  • Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun

Organizations to Follow to Stay Informed

  • #SAYHERNAME — Focusing specifically on police violence against black women, girls, and femmes, #SAYHERNAME advocates for the integration of their stories into the calls for justice and broader policy conversations in regards to police brutality and media representations of police brutality.
  • American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — There is a reason the ACLU has been one of the leading organizations in the pursuit of justice for decades: “The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.”
  • Black Leaders Organizing for Communities — The concerns and needs of the communities we represent always come first. Community-based organizing and face-to-face conversations lead to change. So we listen in order to build transformational, not transactional, relationships. We are uniters, working to lift up the Black citizens, leaders, and businesses of our community. We are transparent in our work to ensure the community we advocate for can hold us accountable.
  • Black Lives Matter — #BlackLivesMatter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives.
  • Black Visions Collective — Black Visions Collective is a black, trans, and queer-led organization in affiliation with the Black Lives Matter Global Network and the official chapter in Minnesota.
  • Color of Change — Color of Change is the nation’s largest online racial justice organization today; it works to “challenge injustice, hold corporate and political leaders accountable, commission game-changing research on systems of inequality, and advance solutions for racial justice that can transform our world.”
  • Equal Justice Initiative — EJI is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the U.S., challenging racial and economic injustice, and protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society. We’ve earned the top ranking from Charity Navigator and won a Skoll Award for our impact on social justice reform.
  • Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness Center — We will radically transform Black Women’s health by creating a world where Black women and girls live long, happy and thriving lives, defined by healthy minds, bodies and spirits.
  • Free the 350BailFund — A community-run bail fund consisting of many local progressive organizations.
  • Freedom Inc. — Freedom, Inc. engages low- to no-income communities of color in Dane County, WI. Our mission is to achieve social justice through coupling direct services with leadership development and community organizing.
  • Justified Anger — Through this cohort structure limited to 15 participants, it is envisioned that the capacity to carry out the goals and objectives of the Justified Anger “Our Madison Plan” will be built and implemented by transforming the face of leadership in our community and equipping African American leaders with the distinct tools needed to lead change in our Madison, in this current moment.
  • NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund — LDF’s mission has always been transformative: to achieve racial justice, equality, and an inclusive society. The new political landscape and a retrenchment in key areas of civil rights pose unprecedented threats to the hard-won gains of the last half century. From new assaults on voting rights, to a renewed push to undermine equal access to quality education, the reversal of criminal justice and police reform, we face significant challenges in every area of our work.
  • NAACP of Dane County — The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.
  • National Bail Funds — This website makes it easy to donate to bail funds across the country.
  • Nehemiah: Center for Urban Leadership Development — The racial disparities in Madison and throughout Wisconsin have created two dramatically different realities along racial lines. The disparities between race amongst children in Wisconsin, ranks worst nationally in recent studies. Current services, efforts, and solutions are fragmented and underserving the minority population in Madison and statewide.
  • One City Schools — One City’s mission is to seed a new model of public education that ensures young children are on track to succeed in a college or career preparatory program from birth through high school graduation
  • Othering and Belonging Institute — The Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley brings together researchers, organizers, stakeholders, communicators, and policymakers to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society in order to create transformative change. We are a diverse and vibrant hub generating work centered on realizing a world where all people belong, where belonging entails being respected at a level that includes the right to both contribute and make demands upon society and political and cultural institutions.
  • Progress Center for Black Women — The Progress Center for Black Women is the legacy Founder Sabrina Madison wants to build for the greater Dane County area. It brings all her work under one roof, quite literally, and represents a long-term commitment toward the progress of Black women and families.
  • Race Forward — Founded in 1981, Race Forward brings systemic analysis and an innovative approach to complex race issues to help people take effective action toward racial equity. Founded in 2002, CSI catalyzes community, government, and other institutions to dismantle structural racial inequity and create equitable outcomes for all. In 2017, Race Forward united with Center for Social Inclusion to become the new Race Forward.
  • The Audre Lorde Project — The Audre Lorde Project is a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non-Conforming People of Color community organizing center, focusing on the New York City area.
  • The Freedom Fund — The Freedom Fund secures the release of low-income people held in jail or immigration detention simply because they can’t afford bail, with a focus on LGBTQ+ individuals.
  • The Marsha P. Johnson Institute — This organization was set up in honor of Marsha P. Johnson, a black trans woman who was prominent in the Stonewall uprising of 1969 and would go on to be a seminal part of the fight for LGBTQ+ equality. Specifically, this fund seeks to support the black trans community.
  • Transgender Law Center — Transgender Law Center changes law, policy, and attitudes so that all people can live safely, authentically, and free from discrimination regardless of their gender identity or expression.
  • Unicorn Riot — Unicorn Riot is a decentralized, educational 501(c)(3) non-profit media organization of artists and journalists. Their work is “dedicated to exposing root causes of dynamic social and environmental issues through amplifying stories and exploring sustainable alternatives in today’s globalized world.”
  • Urban League of Greater Madison — The mission of the Urban League of Greater Madison is to ensure that African Americans and other community members are educated, employed and empowered to live well, advance professionally and contribute to the common good in the 21st Century.
  • Urban Triage — Urban Triage partnering with MMSD for series of workshops Your Community Nonprofit; For the People, by the People. Community Led, Community Funded. Our mission is to foster Black families’ self-sufficiency, community leadership, advocacy, and student success through parent engagement and cultural heritage.
  • Young, Gifted, and Black Ferguson to Madison — The situation in Ferguson has highlighted the need for the further liberation of Black people across the country, including Madison and Dane county.
  • YWCA of Madison — YWCA is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all.