22 RESOURCES TO HELP YOU EMBRACE HARD HISTORY

How exploring the root cause of recent protests can help us heal from the darkest parts of our history.

In recent weeks, people have taken to the streets calling for our community as a whole to finally honor the long-ignored stories of suffering and exclusion that created the challenges of today. They are calling us to confront the hard history which our textbooks and teachers have glossed over in order to protect our national nostalgia and patriotic pride.

Hearing that call, we are including below a few resources that might help you get started or move forward on your journey of confronting this history. As James Baldwin so eloquently put it, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced”.

All Americans (especially white people) need to do a lot more than just read. But reading is a great place to start, helping us understand the genesis of the system we must change and the patterns that we must disrupt if we want the ideals and opportunities of democracy to finally become a lived reality for all.

So please read from a place of love, and then act for lasting change.

Intro to Hard History

These resources will introduce you to the concept of hard history, why it's important, and what it means to you as an individual and a member of society 

1. Confronting Hard History Workshop

One of the best places to begin interacting with hard history is through our upcoming workshop. In this live, interactive session you'll join me to learn why acknowledging the past is the only way we can heal wounds and work towards societal wellbeing. I'll also walk you through simple exercises that will allow you to approach this issue without guilt or fear.

There are two workshop dates, June 23 and June 26. Please click the dates for full event information or access our workshop page -  I'd love to see you there!

2. Confronting Hard History, Prof. Hasan Jeffries 

This is a powerful introduction to the topic of hard history and why it matters for us to not just avoid mistakes of the past, but also correct the present.

3. The Great Migration and the Power of a Single Decision, Isabel Wilkerson

A moving talk illustrating the symbolic power of individual decisions of African Americans to leave the Jim Crow South to choose their own fate and seek opportunities for their talents.

4. 1619 Project

Only 8% of American high schoolers identify slavery as a central cause of the Civil War. The 1619 Project, led by Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, consists of a series of long-form articles and a podcast digging into this lost connection and filling in the gaps of knowledge.

5. Teaching Hard HistoryTeaching Tolerance provides a comprehensive set of resources to explore, including the Teaching Hard History podcast. 

6. Composer Education

This is a new portal, providing searchable access to great civic education materials available online. Find the best materials of Teaching Tolerance, Facing History and other providers on the issue of racism.

7. E Pluribus Unum FundCreated by the E Pluribus Unum Institute, this collection of resources is a collaborative project run by New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu and seeks to address systemic challenges, unite around a common purpose and advance racial equity across the South.

Books

These books can help give context and clarity to the idea of hard history.

1. "The Warmth of Other Suns", Isabel Wilkerson, 2012. A stirring collective biography about the Great Migration.

2. "The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America", Richard Rothstein, 2018. A brilliantly researched and powerfully writing book that will change your understanding of our cities today.

3. "A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of the Civil Rights Movement", by Jeanne Theoharis, 2019. A new and carefully researched narrative of the Civil Rights Movement that provides vision and hope for the future.

4. James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son", 1955 and "Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes from a Native Son", 1961.Collections of articles Baldwin published in journals with reflections on race that are as valid today as they were then.

5. "Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics and Big Business Recreate Race in the 21 st Century", Dorothy Roberts, 2019. 

6. "Between the World and Me", Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2015. An eloquent memoir that is also a portrait of Black America.

7. "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness", Michelle Alexander, 2012. A sweeping indictment of the law enforcement practices that relegated generations of black men to a second-class citizen status.

8. "This America: The Case for The Nation", Jill Lepore, 2019. A case for a concept of nation valuing our differences.

9. "Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defence of Equality", by Danielle Allen. A brilliant manifesto for imagining a stronger nation with a renewed commitment to democratic values.

Movies

1. "I am not your Negro", 2018. Written by James Baldwin, Narrated by Samuel Jackson

2. "Harriet Tubman, Kasie Lemons", 2019 (Review fact-check articles online re: some embellishments)

3. "Selma", Ava DuVernay, 2014

4. "13th", Ava DuVernay, 2016

5. "Do the Right Thing", Spike Lee 1989

6. "The Hate U Give", George Tillman/Angie Thomas, 2018

Confronting our past can feel challenging and uncomfortable. History is so full of hurt, pain, injustice and loss, it's tempting to look away. To move on. To pretend it never even happened. But if we're brave, instead, if we're honest instead. If we choose to engage with this history instead of ignoring it, then we'll be able to learn, understand, and truly heal.

Source: collective.round.glass/learn/hard-history