Black Lives Matter challenges the systemic racism and violence faced by African Americans. The movement grew out of a response to the pervasive police brutality experienced by Black people. Black Lives Matter is a global movement founded by community organizers Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.
The Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library has gathered a sample of available library resources to help you explore various facets of these complex and significant issues. For help locating books in the library, consult this guide and/or ask for directions at the library's information desk. If you have resources to suggest, please feel free to email us. Finally, as this guide is far from comprehensive, please search the library's catalog or chat with a librarian to find additional resources.
A curated selection of primary sources on African American history and movements against racial injustice. Sources include legislation, legal cases, and documents about leaders and organizations. The collection is organized into six areas: Slavery and the Abolitionist Movement (1790-1860); The Civil War and the Reconstruction Era (1861-1877); Jim Crow Era from 1878 to the Great Depression (1878-1932); The New Deal and World War II (1933-1945); The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements (1946-1975); The Contemporary Era (1976-2000)
This primary source collection covers African American history and experience as recorded by the news media. Sources include a variety of American and global news sources, including current and historical Black publications. NOTE: The library subscribes to Series 3 (1976-current).
This collection of FBI files provides source materials for major social movements and key figures in early twentieth century black history and it provides a window into the development of America’s first systematic domestic surveillance programs.
To access the full text of local, national and international newspapers, please use these databases. Content is updated daily and you'll find today's papers already available. It's a great way to avoid paywalls! Contact a librarian with questions or for help.
Provides the full text of global, regional and local news sources. Coverage ranges from over 40 Minnesota sources to international sources from over 200 countries.
We've listed a few of our favorite films by Black creators below, as well as a link to the Jazz Music Library, which you can access on your computer. You can check out DVDs from the library; we also have portable DVD players to rent.
This growing collection of streaming jazz currently includes approximately over 5,800 albums and more than 68,800 tracks.
The Gustavus Library is committed to fostering an inclusive and welcoming environment for all our patrons. We acknowledge that harmful and outdated language or terminology exists in catalog records for our materials, though, and we would welcome your help in identifying such instances.
If you encounter any language that you consider to be harmful or offensive to yourself or others, please use this form to report it and suggest alternative language. We will contact the Library of Congress to request that changes be made whenever we come across items under their purview and will supplement our own descriptions with more respectful terms as necessary. We also direct you to our entire Harmful Language Statement for more information.
Be sure to also browse the shelves in the General Collection in the E184 - E185 section (third floor), where you'll find a lot of books related to Black history.
The 1619 Project by 
The Warmth of Other Suns by 
Stamped from the Beginning by 
The Long Emancipation by 
Black Power Afterlives by 
The Burning by 
Let the People See by 
Life upon These Shores by 
Stamped (for Kids) by 
How to Be an Antiracist by 
Antiracism by 
The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop by 
This Book Is Anti-Racist by 
The New Jim Crow by 
Slavery by Another Name by 
Critical Race Theory, First Edition by 
Killing with Prejudice by To browse more fiction by Black authors, search "Fiction Black authors" or "African American authors Fiction" in the Advanced Search of the library catalog; set the search field to Subject. We've also been actively growing our Afrofuturism collection! Search "African and Diasporic Speculative Fiction" as a keyword to see titles.
Call Us What We Carry by 
My Monticello by 
Kindred: a Graphic Novel Adaptation by 
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by 
Dominion by 
James Baldwin: Early Novels and Stories by 
The Birdcatcher by 
The Fifth Season by 
Manifesto by 
When They Call You a Terrorist by 
Between the World and Me by 
South to America by 
How to Be Black by 
Men We Reaped by This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
