The BlackQuaker Project’s Anti-Violence Resource Guide for Quakers Confronting Systemic Violence
The BlackQuaker Project aims, in part, to address the concerns of Quakers of Color. In the USA, at this critical moment, Quakers and People of Color are concerned for their futures. The omnipresence of police violence and uneven effects of the pandemic on communities of color due to systemic racism has resulted in the senseless murders of countless Black people and the increased risk of dying from COVID-19. The BlackQuaker Project has compiled a list of resources (resources to learn about systemic violence, places to donate, and additional ways to support the protests) for the Quaker community, paying special attention to resources that promote the Quaker values of peace with justice and equality with justice. Updated June 19th, 2020.
Quaker Resources
The Quakers of Color International Archive
The Quakers of Color International Archive
The Quakers of Color International Archive is a collection of videotaped interviews with Quaker from Palestine to Kenya to the Americas, documenting the stories, achievements, and concerns of Quakers of Color worldwide. This archive, based at the Du Bois Library at UMass Amherst, is useful in understanding the experiences of Quakers of Color from around the world, and it can be found here. We expect to add other media in the near future.
Readings from Harvard professors in African American Studies from The Harvard Gazette:
Further Readings
An open letter to white people just now getting involved in social justice, by Ijeoma Ouma.
Letter From a Birmingham Jail, an open letter by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from his time spent in Birmingham jail. In it he writes "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".
These books on the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center’s Black Liberation reading list.
The 1619 Project, created by the New York Times, aims to reframe America’s history by centering it around Black Americans and racial injustice.
The Urban Institute is a nonprofit research organization that shares their research on social and economic policy with anyone looking to address today’s problems and prevent future ones.
Campaign Zero has a multitude of resources and data on their website that they use when advocating for policy solutions.
How We Rise, a blog launched by The Race, Prosperity and Inclusion Initiative at Brookings discusses the challenges and work that needs to be done to tackle structural racism in the US. We found this post from Camille Busette particularly intriguing.
Understanding the Policing of Black, Disabled Bodies by Vilissa Thompson and published by the Center for American Progress.
Work in the Intersections: A Black Feminist Disability Framework by Moya Bailey and Izetta Autumn Mobley.
Listen
What Matters is a documentary narrative mixed with interviews brought to you by the Black Lives Matter movement. The platform creates dialogues promoting freedom, justice, and collective liberation.
Strange Fruit, brought to you by NPR and hosted by Dr. Kaila Story and Jason Gardner, explores the topics of pop culture, politics, and life as black and gay in the US.
Intersectionality Matters! A podcast hosted by civil rights activist and lead scholar on critical race theory, Kimberlé Crenshaw.
Code Switch by NPR talks about race’s role in history to today’s pop culture, and is brought to you by a team of people of color.
Watch
Educational Videos
Available on Streaming Platforms
Donate
Other Ways to be Actively Anti-Violent
VOTE
The NAACP has set up an easy way to email your House and Senate representatives about COVID-19 justice and criminal justice reforms here.
PROTEST
Support Black-Owned Businesses
Buy from Black-owned businesses. You can begin to find Black-owned business anywhere in the United States by using the Official Black Wall Street or Support Black Owned directories, though they certainly do not cover all Black-owned businesses.
Never Stop Learning
Being active on social media and following the news is a great way to find resources, including petitions to sign and people to call for justice. Though there will always be misinformation, it is important to stay up-to-date and engaged on these topics instead of blocking them out.
Connect
The BlackQuaker Project would like to thank all the resources we used while compiling this list, especially the resource lists given by Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard, the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center Black Liberation Reading List, and The Harvard Gazette.