P.S. - Recommendations Roundup (Bonus Issue #36)

A watching/listening/reading list for a mindful MLK Day ✊🏽

Hi friends!

Born in 1995, many of my most formative experiences have been punctuated by the modern fights for civil rights. I was a freshman in college when #BlackLivesMatter first trended following the death of Trayvon Martin the year prior. And while the violence faced by Black folks in the U.S. wasn’t new to me, I saw a bigger movement forming in a way I hadn’t experienced in my lifetime.

I’d learned about the civil rights movement in school, but it was always a fairly sanitized version of events. So much of this history was almost glamorized, whitewashed, and changed to disguise an ugly and embarrassing history. All of it wrapped up in the pretty bow of passive nonviolence. I didn’t learn much about the Black Power Movement, and Malcolm X was little more than a foil to contrast Martin Luther King's seemingly perfect and peaceful approach. Eventually, I’d learn more, and that additional historical context about how the civil rights movement really played out changed a lot for me.

I live in Minneapolis, which means the Uprising of summer 2020 quite literally happened in my backyard. One of my biggest takeaways from this time was such a palpable feeling of community. I, along with my friends and neighbors, shaped most of our days around community clean-ups, donation drives, protests, calls to our representatives, and any other way we could make ourselves useful. I often reflect on how so much of what I saw take shape at that time – from mutual aid networks to protest strategies – was carrying on a legacy formed by activists and civil rights leaders decades before me. Any progress we see today is building on a foundation built throughout history, but without an accurate understanding of history and prior movements, this connection is so easily lost. 

I touched a little on these themes in last Friday’s issue (which you can revisit here), but today, on the actual date, meant to honor Dr. King's legacy, I want to go deeper. This time, I’ve widened the scope to include stories and themes from the civil rights and Black liberation movements more broadly. Each of the below recommendations is intended to shed light on a different aspect of the fight for Black freedom + equality, in a way that’s nuanced and authentic to how it actually happened. Check it out below!