I was speaking at a conference recently, when a dear middle aged white couple pulled me to the side and asked me to please provide them with a list of books written by people of color for them to read.  I promised them I’d post on my blog. Here are just a few of the books from colorful hands I’ve been encouraged by (in no particular order):

Taylor Branch’s trilogy on the Civil Rights Movement: Parting the Waters; Pillar of Fire; At Canaan’s Edge

Bryan Stevenson’s, Just Mercy

Korie Edwards, The Elusive Dream

Soong Chan Rah, The Next Evangelicalism; Prophetic Lament

James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folks

Fredrick Douglas, The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas

Jared Alcantara, Crossover Preaching

Eric Mason, Manhood Restored

Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns

Cornel West, Race Matters

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

Ralph Richard Banks, Is Marriage for White People?

Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow