A Justice and Advocacy Book Group

 

Grab a copy of our current book or a previous one - we try to keep extras available in the Parish Hall - and start reading.

If you prefer other ways to engage with information we try to have video and other sources listed with each book.  

We finish each topic with a meal and a discussion on a Sunday evening.  

Good food, good community, challenging ideas and new perspectives.

 

This is what we are reading and some of what we have read:

 

See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valarie Kaur

The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America by Mark Whitaker

Our Winter Fall 2025/2026 reads are about the legacy of Malcom X.  Our primary text is The Afterlife of Malcolm X An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America, by Mark Whitaker.  We will gather in February to discuss.

We'll also be using the classic autobiography of Malcolm X written by Alex Haley and a book by Anna Malaika Tubbs titled The Three Mothers which includes fascinating information on Malcolm's mother Louise Little and the challenges she faced as a black woman.

Political philosopher and visionary, husband and father, dynamic orator and militant minister. In his lifetime, Malcolm X was many men. Born Malcolm Little, he later became "Detroit Red" and "New York Red" — a hustler, drug pusher, pimp, con man and the head of a Boston robbery ring. After spending time in prison, he emerged as Minister Malcolm — Malcolm X, the fiery, eloquent spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Finally, he became El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, an internationally recognized leader and advocate for oppressed peoples. He was both loved and despised, revered and feared — until an assassin's bullet cut him down at age 39. (PBS)

Malcolm X - Make It Plain (1994) PBS American Experience website

American Experience marks the 40th anniversary of his death with "Malcolm X — Make It Plain." This in-depth film portrait goes straight to the heart, mind and message of one of the modern era's most complex figures. Actress Alfre Woodard narrates the special. (PBS)

Malcolm X Interview 1963

This a 1963 interview with Malcom X and Berkeley graduate student Herman Blake. The discussion is moderated by Sociology professor John Leggett.

Playboy Interview, May 1963 

Malcolm X's Letter from Hajj 1964

Saturday Evening Post article, September 12, 1964.  Read the editorial “The Lesson of Malcolm X” from the pages of the September 12, 1964 issue of the Post.

His Final Speech, February 14, 1965, Ford Auditorium

Interesting recent movies:

Malcolm X, 1992 directed by Spike Lee

One Night in Miami, 2020 directed by Regina King

 

Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote and Insisted on Equality for All, by Martha S. Jones

"In her inspiring new book, Vanguard, renowned historian Martha S. Jones gives us a sweeping narrative for our times, grounded in the multi-generational struggle of black women for a freedom and equality that would not only fulfill their rights but galvanize a broader, redemptive movement for human rights everywhere. Through the carefully interwoven stories of famous and forgotten African American women, together representing two hundred years of history, Jones shows how this core of our society -- so key to winning elections today -- also gave us 'the nation's original feminists and antiracists.' From organizers and institution builders to preachers and writers, journalists and activists, black women found ways to rise up through the twin cracks of race and sex discrimination to elevate democracy as a whole. At a moment when that very democracy is under assault, Vanguard reminds us to look for hope in those most denied it."―Henry Louis Gates Jr.

 

Black Women and the Right to Vote | The History You Didn't Learn | TIME A ten minute video about the suffrage movement and how it side-lined black women.

An interview with Dr. Martha Jones:  Sage Women's Institute, one hour and twenty minutes

Other books of interest:  Hood Feminism - Notes for the Women a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

And 

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder

is our Summer 2025 read

 

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “bracing” (Vox) guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism, from “a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present” (The New York Times)

Checkout TimothySnyder.org for more information about the author, lectures and articles.

This is a 10 minute youtube 20 Lessons on Tyranny narrated by John Lithgow - well worth your time!

Timothy Snyder on Religion, Power and Freedom an hour or so interview with The State of Belief podcast hosted by Rev. Paul B. Raushenbush that includes comments about both On Tyranny and On Freedom, 

 

 

CBS News Interview with Timothy Snyder, June 2025 - Recognizing the Signs of Facism Today.

 

 

 

During the Spring of 2025 we focused on the 1955 murder of Emmett Till.  

We'll use two books as our main sources:

The Barn by Wright Thompson 

The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy Tyson

with

Simeon's Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till by Simeon Wright and Herbert Boyd

And we are also including some poetry, film and popular media sources for discussion this murder and its ramifications for us all.  

Poetry:

Gwendolyn Brooks:  

A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, A Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon.

Marilyn Nelson and Philippe Lardy: A Wreath for Emmett Till - written for young readers

An excerpt:

Mutilated boy martyr, if I could,

Winter 2024/2025 we read Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways by Dorcas Cheng-Tozun

 

Social justice work is not always about raised voices and raised fists.  

There are many ways to make change and engage in justice work.  

Come read along with us and see how you too can be part of the change you seek.

We'll gather for a souper and discussion in late January/February

 

 

 

 

Late Fall 2024 we read God is a Black Woman by Christena Cleveland

 

 

The white fathers told us: 

I think, therefore I am.

The Black Mother within each of us-the poet-whispers in our dreams:

I feel, therefore I can be free.

Audre Lorde

 

 

 

 

Summer 2024 we read James by Percival Everett

 

Think about what friendship and ally ship mean to you and how have you demonstrated that in your personal relationships and how has it been demonstrated to you? 

An interesting article on the subject of friendship from the Huff Post - read it

And this is a link to the PBS Books Readers Club - James is their July discussion book, for more information, https://www.facebook.com/groups/pbsbooksreadersclub 

New York Time Book Review

We will gather for a souper book discussion on Sunday, September 15 at 5pm

 

 

 

 

 

Our second book, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of how our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein was discussed as part of our February/March 2024 Lenten series.  It was of special interest to us as Richmond faces an acute shortage of affordable housing and Virginia has systematically defied civil rights legislation since Reconstruction.  

Some good local resources for fair housing advocacy can be found on the Partnership for Housing Affordability website and RISC, Richmonders Involved to Strengthen our Communities website.  Our J&A Team is currently weighing how best we might leverage our capacity in advocacy for housing affordability and availability.

St. Mark's Reads continues the work of racial justice begun during our 150th Anniversary RVA Talks program and Community Reads, a book group shared with St. Peter's Episcopal Church.  This Fall we are reading one of two books about Pauli Murray, and have the third option of watching a video on her life.

Read your choice of Song in A Weary Throat by Pauli Murray, or Pauli Murray: A Personal and Political Life by Troy R. Saxby. Or watch My Name is Pauli Murray on Prime Video or other streaming sources.

Young adult and children's titles are: Pauli Murray: Shouting of the Rights of All People by Deborah Nelson Link and The History of Juneteenth: A History Book for New Readers by Arlisha Norwood.

We gathered on Sunday, November 12 at 6pm for a Souper and discussion of what we read.