Dismantling White Supremacy Program

Book Group

​The book group began as a way for members of the Social Justice Action Committee (SJAC) at First Church in JP UU to educate ourselves about the history of settler colonialism, racism, and white supremacy here in the Americas, and to learn from current voices and perspectives. Below is a list of our common reads for anyone wishing to do their own exploration. Upcoming books and discussion dates are announced in the church newsletter, and we welcome all members and friends of First Church to join us in our book discussions.

2017 – 2025

  • An Indigenous People’s History of the United States – Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz 
  • The Fire Next Time – James Baldwin
  • Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates 
  • So You Want to Talk about Race – Ijeoma Oluo
  • The War Against All Puerto Ricans – Nelson A.  Denis 
  • Green – Sam Graham-Felsen
  • Killers of the Flower Moon – David Gann 
  • The Case For Reparations – Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • How to Be an Anti-Racist – Ibram X. Kendi 
  • There, There – Tommy Orange 
  • White Fragility – Robin DeAngelo
  • Breathe – Imani Perry 
  • Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • This Land is Their Land – David J. Silverman
  • My Grandmother’s Hands – Resmaa Menakem
  • Sacred Instructions – Sherri Mitchell
  • Emergent Strategy – Adrienne Maree Brown
  • How to Be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi
  • Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals – Alexis Pauline Gumbs
  • How to Be Less Stupid About Race – Crystal M. Fleming
  • Deacon King Kong – James McBride
  • Four Hundred Souls – edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain
  • Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy – Rachel Ricketts
  • The Water Dancer – Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents – Isabel Wilkerson
  • Horse – Geraldine Brooks
  • All That She Carried – Tiya Miles
  • Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future without Policing & Prisons – edited by Colin Kaepernick
  • Safety Through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism – Shane Burley and Ben Lorber
  • The Undocumented Americans -Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
  • Hood Feminism – Mikki Kendall