Curated Resources for Racial Justice Leaders
Below find a non-exhaustive list of resources—from within and outside The Episcopal Church—curated to help leaders deepen their learning on topics of justice and action; formation and learning; and proclamation and prayer.
Justice and action resources
General
Becoming Beloved Community Where You Are
Encompassing The Episcopal Church’s framework for long-term racial reconciliation work, this booklet is a resource for individuals, congregations, and communities seeking racial healing and justice.
Equal Justice Initiative
This organization addresses mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and racial inequality. It includes the Legacy Museum and a national memorial for victims of lynching and racial terror.
Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations
This Washington, D.C.-based office manages The Episcopal Church’s advocacy and action at the federal level.
Episcopal Public Policy Network
This grassroots network connects Episcopalians and urges advocacy for federal legislative change.
Episcopal Church resources for advocacy
Find Episcopal Church policies, tips for communicating with elected officials, voter engagement resources, and more.
From the Pew to the Public Square
This booklet offers practical ways for Episcopalians to work toward structural change.
Southern Poverty Law Center
This nonprofit civil rights organization’s resources include an interactive map of hate groups.
Tips for How to Establish and Run a White Caucus Group
By Craig Elliott, to assist people who identify as white and/or have white skin privilege in doing their shared work.
Criminal Justice Reform
8 Can’t Wait campaign for police reform
This project by Campaign Zero includes eight proposals for police departments to increase public safety and trust.
“13th”
This 2016 documentary by Ava DuVernay examines the U.S. prison system, racial inequality, and mass incarceration.
Actions on police reform
This list from the Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations includes steps to take to address police violence (2021).
Episcopal Church General Convention and Executive Council resolutions
– 2018-A229: Acknowledge Police Violence and Confront Racism
– 2018-B024: Urge Alternatives to Deadly Force by Police and Support Training in Mental Health Crisis Intervention
New Era of Public Safety: A guide to fair, safe, and effective community policing
This 416-page report by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and its accompanying toolkit—published in 2019—are designed to give individuals and communities the knowledge and skills to hold police departments accountable.
“Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys”
This award-winning book is by Victor Rios, a former gang member who grew up in Oakland, California, earned a doctorate at Berkeley, and returned to his hometown.
The Science of Justice: Race, Arrests, and Police Use of Force
This 2016 report from the Center for Policing Equity provides national-level data and analyses on police behavior, with a focus on racial disparities.
Witness
This global organization helps people use video and technology to protect and defend human rights.
“To Serve and Protect: The Police, Race, and The Episcopal Church in the Black Lives Matter Era”
This article in the Anglican Theological Review (2017) is written by the Rev. Gayle Fisher-Stewart, an Episcopal priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington who retired as a D.C. police captain before her ordination.
Formation and learning resources
A Selection of Episcopal and Related Antiracism Trainings (English and Spanish)
Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing
This Atlanta, Georgia-based center provides programs and resources that promote racial healing and justice.
Becoming Beloved Community
This 2016 report from the Center for Policing Equity provides national-level data and analyses on police behavior, with a focus on racial disparities.
Witness
This global organization helps people use video and technology to protect and defend human rights.
“To Serve and Protect: The Police, Race, and The Episcopal Church in the Black Lives Matter Era”
This article in the Anglican Theological Review (2017) is written by the Rev. Gayle Fisher-Stewart, an Episcopal priest in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington who retired as a D.C. police captain before her ordination.
General Resources and Organizations
Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing
This Atlanta, Georgia-based center provides programs and resources that promote racial healing and justice.
Becoming Beloved Community
Find our long-term Episcopal Church vision and resources—including curricula for Advent and Lent—for Episcopalians working toward racial healing, reconciliation, and justice.
Center for Racial Justice in Education
This New York-based organization offers resources for talking about race, racism, and racialized violence with children.
Sacred Ground program on race and faith
Launched by The Episcopal Church in 2019 and available for any faith-based organization, this film- and readings-based program is designed for small groups.
Films and Podcasts
Sacred Ground supplemental reading and film guide
This list from Sacred Ground program material includes books, articles, films, and resources to support learning and action around racism and its effects on White, Black, Indigenous, Asiamerican and Latino communities.
TED Talks:
How Studying Privilege Systems Can Strengthen Compassion (Peggy McIntosh at TEDxTimberlaneSchools, 2012)
How to Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Towards Them (Vernā Myers at TEDxBeaconStreet, 2014)
How We’re Priming Some Kids for College and Others for Prison (Alice Goffman at TED2015)
Let’s get to the root of racial injustice (Megan Ming Francis at TEDxRainier, 2015)
The urgency of intersectionality (Kimberlé Crenshaw at TEDWomen, 2016)
“1619” podcast
This New York Times podcast coincides with the paper’s 1619 Project, which examines the legacy of slavery in the U.S.
“Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North”
This documentary follows filmmaker Katrina Browne’s journey to explore her slave-trading family’s past and new perspectives on race in America.
Articles
A Sacred Ground supplemental reading and film guide
This curated list of books, articles, films, and resources from The Episcopal Church’s Sacred Ground program supports learning and action around racism and its effects on White, Black, Indigenous, Asiamerican, and Latino communities.
“Speaking of Freedom”
This July 4 (2020) letter to the church is from Kelly Brown Douglas, Stephanie Spellers and Winnie Varghese.
Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices
The July 2020 issue of Vestry Papers focuses on racial justice and reconciliation.
Racial justice and reconciliation news articles
Find links to Episcopal News Service articles related to race and racism.
How to Talk to Children about Race
Books about racism
“America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America” (Jim Wallis)
“Constructing Solidarity for a Liberative Ethic: Anti-Racism, Action, and Justice” (Tammerie Day)
“Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives” (Howard J. Ross)
“Faces At The Bottom Of The Well: The Permanence Of Racism” (Derrick Bell)
“How to Be an Antiracist” (Ibram X. Kendi)
“Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” (Bryan Stevenson; also a film)
“Living into God’s Dream: Dismantling Racism in America” (edited by Catherine Meeks)
“Race: A Theological Account” (J. Kameron Carter)
“Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America” (Eduardo Bonilla-Silva)
“Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter” (Kelly Brown Douglas)
“The Church Cracked Open: Disruption, Decline, and New Hope for Beloved Community” (Stephanie Spellers)
“White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” (Robin DiAngelo)
“White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America” (Nancy Isenberg)
Proclamation and prayer resources
Prayers from Seeing the Face of God in Each Other
Find prayers related to racial justice and healing on pages 33-62 of this anti-racism training manual.
A year of prayers to end racism
This collection of prayers is from the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia’s Commission to End Racism.
Scriptures for justice, lament, and solidarity
– Exodus 10:17-21
– Exodus 22:21-23
– Isaiah 58:6-7
– Isaiah 61
– Micah 6:8
– Psalm 10
– Psalm 13
– Psalm 89
– Psalm 103
– Luke 4:16-21
– Ephesians 6: 12-15
– Hebrews 13:1-3
