We, at Black Lives Matter Nashville, believe we are in the midst of a revolutionary movement for black lives. We believe we are at war with systems in this country and world that demean and undermine the humanity of black people–namely, white supremacy, patriarchy, transphobia, homophobia, capitalism, and imperialism. Thus, we believe in arming ourselves for the war. And we believe there’s no better way to arm ourselves than with books. We’ve compiled a rolling bibliography of books that have been helpful for us while we conceptualize and navigate this movement. It’s rolling because there’s always more to add. Please submit more books, documentaries, links, and resources that have shaped and impacted you to blacklivesmatternashville@gmail.com.
Mass Incarceration
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis
Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture by Angela Davis
Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon
Autobiography/Biography/Memoir
Negroes With Guns by Robert F. Williams
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis
Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision by Barbara Ransby
Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC by Faith S. Holsaert
Angela Davis: An Autobiography by Angela Davis
A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story by Elaine Brown
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley
Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson by Jo Ann Robinson
Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur
Unbought and Unbossed by Shirley Chisholm
Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton
Stokely: A Life by Peniel Joseph
Ready for the Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) by Stokely Carmichael
Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis, with Michael D’Orso
Movement Histories
Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms by Nicolas Johnson
We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement by Akinyele Umoja
This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible by Charles E. Cobb Jr.
Sisters in the Struggle: African-American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement by Bettye Collier-Thomas and V.P. Franklin
Waiting ‘Till the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America by Peniel Joseph
Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940-1980 by Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard
At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance–A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Danielle L. McGuire
Black Against Empire: THe History and Politics of the Black Panther Party by Joshua Bloom
Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination by Alondra Nelson
Want to Start a Revolution?: Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle by Komozi Woodard
In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s by Clayborne Carson
The Children by David Halberstam
Christopher Columbus and the African Holocaust: Slavery and the Rise of European Capitalism by John Henrik Clarke
Documentaries/Clips
The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 by Goran Olsson
The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
Angela Davis on Violence Concerning Violence
Theory/Philosophy/Feminism/Masculinity
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon
Black Power and Black Theology by James Cone
The Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment by Patricia Hill Collins
All About Love: New Vision by bell hooks
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks
Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. by Bobby Seale
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
New Black Man by Mark Anthony Neal
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-AMerican Writing edited by LeRoi Jones and Larry Neal
Fiction
Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements by Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown Meridian by Alice Walker
Black Lives Matter Nashville 
Reblogged this on The Black Millennial Historian (In-Training) and commented:
Revolutionary Reading…
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Reblogged this on smntks.
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Warmth of Another Sun? Informative and an easy read. Your list is rich.
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Brothers and Sisters what an excellent reading list. It would be great if would add a few works on political economy, imperialism and Black labor as the list continues to roll.
*Black Lives Matter!
*Stop the War on Black America!
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Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
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Reblogged this on United Against Police Terror – San Diego.
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