The foundation of our art & educational programming lies in empowering youth through literature and civic action. We must educate and engage our communities to dismantle discriminative policies and encourage the next generation of leaders! Please read through our curated reading list to inspire your next book haul - list is updated constantly by DSPDX volunteers. Email new recommendations or book related inquiries to contact@dontshootpdx.org!
“Just Help! How To Build A Better World” by Sonia Sotomayor with illustrations by Angela Dominguez
“Goodnight Racism” by Ibram X. Kendi with illustrations by Cbabi Bayoc
“Not Done Yet: Shirley Chisholm’s Fight for Change” by Tameka Fryer Brown and illustrated by Nina Crews
“Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot” by Mikki Kendall
“Freedom in Congo Square” by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
“Stacey’s Extraordinary Words” by Stacey Abrams and illustrated by Kitt Thomas
“The World Belonged to Us” by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by Leo Espinosa
“Eyes That Speak to the Stars” by Joanna Ho and illustrated by Dung Ho
“The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family” by Olympic Medalist Ibithaj Muhammad with S.K. Ali with art by Hatem Aly
“The Faith of Elijah Cummings: The North Star of Equal Justice” by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Laura Freeman
“Evicted! The Struggle For The Right to Vote” by Alice Faye Duncan with art by Charly Palmer
“Melanin Magic” by Vegalia
“Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” by Maya Angelou, with illustrations from Jean-Michel Basquiat
“Good Night Martin Luther King Jr” by Adam Gamble and Mark Jasper
“Hey You! An Empowering Celebration of Growing Up Black” by Dapo Adeola
“Lullaby for a Black Mother” a poem by Langston Hughes and illustrated by Sean Qualls
“Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff
“The Black Kids” by Christina Hammonds Reed
“This is My America” by Kim Johnson
“We Came to America” by Faith Ringgold
“The True Story of the Grandmother of Juneteenth: Opal Lee and What it Means to Be Free” by Alice Faye Duncan, art by Keturah A. Bobo
“The Year We Learned to Fly” by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Rafael Lopez
“Story Painter: The life of Jacob Lawrence” by John Duggleby
“Becoming Muhammad Ali” by James Patterson and Kwame Alexander
“Black Futures” curated & edited by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham
“Trespass: History of Uncommissioned Urban Art” by Carlo McCormick
“The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family” by Ibtihaj Muhammad, art by Hatem Alu
“The World Belongested to Us” by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Leo Espinosa
“Why Not You?” by Ciara and Russell Wilson, illustrated by Jessica Gibson
“Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson
“Faces and Phases” by Zanele Muholi
“Control” by Stephanie Guerilus
“I, Too, Am America” by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Bryan Collier
“Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
“The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead
“I Am Rosa Parks” by Rosa Parks and Jim Haskins, illustrated by Wil Clay
“Smash It!” by Francina Simone
“The Black Flamingo” by Dean Atta
“Cinderella” by Kalynn Bayron
“Beloved” by Toni Morrison
“Child of the Dream” by Sharon Robinson
“These Hands” by Hope Lynn Price, illustrated by Bryan Collier
“Parker Looks Up: An Extraordinary Moment” by Jessica Curry and Parker Curry
“One of the Good Ones” by Maritza Moulite
“Sulwe” by Lupita Nyong’o
“Thurgood” by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Bryan Collier
“Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History” by Vashti Harrison,
“Who Was Martin Luther King Jr?” by Lisbeth Kaiser, illustrated by Stanley Chow
“Who Was Harriet Tubman?” by Yona Zeldis McDonough, illustrated by Nancy Harrison
“The Undefeated” by Kwame Alexander, Kadir Nelson
“Bunheads” by Misty Copeland
“Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut” by Derrick Barnes
“Rosa” by Nikki Giovanni
“Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad” by Ellen Levine, Kadir Nelson
“Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson
“Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations” by Mira Jacob
“Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence” by Kehinde Wiley
“Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic” by by Eugenie Tsai
“The Water Dancer” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
“All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto” by George M. Johnson
“Concrete Rose” by Angie Thomas
“Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem” by Amanda Gorman, illustrated by Loren Long
“I Am Every Good Thing” by Derrick Barnes, Gordon C. James
“Mae Among The Stars” by Roda Ahmed
“Harlem at Four” by Dr. Michael Datcher, illustrated by Frank Morrison
“Abolition For the People” by Colin Kaepernick
“Antiracist Baby” by Ibram X.Kendi, illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
“Martin Rising: Requiem For A King” by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney
“Let the Children March” by Monica Clark-Robinson, illustrated by Frank Morrison
“Don’t Touch My Hair” by Sharee Miller
“M Is For Melanin: A Celebration of The Black Child” by Tiffany Rose
“Fry Bread, A Native American Family Story” by Kevin Noble Maillard, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal
“A Sweet Smell of Roses” by Angela Johnson, illustrated by Eric Velasquez
“Step Into Your Power: 23 Lessons on How to Live Your Best Life” by Jamia Wilson, illustrated by Andrea Pippins
“You Should See me in a Crown” by Leah Johnson
“Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice” by Mahogany L. Brown with Elizabeth Acevedo and Olivia Gatwood, illustrated by Theodore Taylor III
“M is for Movement” by Innosanto Nagara
“I Am Loved” by Nikki Giovanni, illustrated by Ashley Bryan
“African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song” edited by Kevin Young
“The Life of Frederick Douglass” by David F. Walker, Damon Smyth, Marissa Louise
“Say Something” by Peter H. Reynolds
“Dear Black Girl: Letters From Your Sisters on Stepping Into Your Power” by Tamara Winfrey Harris
“Survival Math” by Mitchell S. Jackson
“Juneteenth” by Ralph Ellison
“The Beautiful Struggle” by Ta-Nehisi Coates
“Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin
“Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation” by Cain Hope Felder
“Shirley Chisholm Dared: The Story of the First Back Woman in Congress” by Alicia D. Williams
“A is for Activist” by Innosanto Nagara
“The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. Du Bois
“This is Your Time” by Ruby Bridges
“Just As I Am: A Memoir” by Cicely Tyson
“Shady Baby” by Gabrielle Union-Wade, illustrated by Dwayne Wade Jr
“All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom” by Angela Johnson, illustrated by E.B. Lewis
“We are Water Protectors” by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade
“Dear Martin” by Nic Stone
“Fatima’s Great Outdoors” by Ambreen Tariq
“Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter?” by Shani Mahari King
“Juneteenth for Mazie” by Floyd Cooper
“Black Reconstruction” by W.E.B. Du Bois
“The Black Panther Party” by David F. Walker, Marcus Kwame Anderson
“All Because You Matter” by Tami Charles, illustrated by Bryan Collier
“My Friend Earth” by Patricia MacLachlan, illustrated by Francesca Sanna
“The Girl with the Louding Voice” by Abi Daré
“Black Body Amnesia: Poems and Other Speech Acts” by Jaamil Olawale Kosoko
“Persevere and Resist: The Strong Black Women of Elizabeth Catlett” by Heather Nickels
“Frida” by Sebastien Perez and Benjamin Lacombe
“Come and Get These Memories: The Genius of Holland-Dozier-Holland, Motown’s Incomparable Songwriters” by Eddie and Brian Holland with Dave Thompson
“One Love” adapted by Cedella Marley, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
“The Rap Year Book” by Shea Serrano, Ice-T, illustrated by Arturo Torres
“Every Little Thing” adapted by Cedella Marley, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
“Frankie Finds the Blues” story by Joel Harper, illustrated by Gary Kelley
“Black Brother, Black Brother” by Jewell Parker Rhodes
“Stamped” for Kids” by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi
“Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” by Ibram X. Kendi
“Stamped From the Beginning: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America” by Ibram X. Kendi, adapted and illustrated by Joel Christian Gill
“Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning” by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
“Take Back the Block” by Chrystal D. Giles
“Ikenga” by Nnedi Okorafor
“The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman
“Black Girls Rock! Owning Our Magic, Rocking Our Truth”, edited by Beverly Bond
“On Juneteenth” by Annette Gordon-Reed
“Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston
“Bee Fearless: Dream Like a Kid” by Mikaila Ulmer
“Ways to Grow Love: A Ryan Hart Story” by Renée Watson
“Juliet Takes a Breath” by Gabby Rivera
“My First Ella Fitzgerald” - Little People, Big Dreams, illustrated by Barbara Alca
“Little People, Big Dreams: RuPaul” - Written by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Wednesday Holmes
“Little People, Big Dreams: Aretha Franklin” - Written by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Amy Blackwell
“Little People, Big Dreams: Stevie Wonder” - Written by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Melissa Lee Johnson
“Little People, Big Dreams: Prince” - Written by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Cachetejack
“My First Josephine Baker” - Little People, Big Dreams, illustrated by Agathe Sorlet
“Supreme Glamour” by Mary Wilson with Mark Bego
“The Life of La Vida De Celia, a bilingual picture book biography” by Patty Rodriguez and Ariana Stein, illustrated by Citlali Reyes
“Frida Kahlo: An Illustrated Biography” by Zena Alkayat and Nina Cosford
“Desperately Seeking Basquiat” by Ian Castello-Cortes
“Stay this Way Forever” by Linsey Davis, illustrated by Lucy Fleming
“Black Girl’s Window” by Betye Saar
“Grandpa and the Library, How Charles White Learned to Paint” by C. Ian White
“El abuelo y la biblioteca, Como Charles White aprendió a pintar” by C. Ian White
“To See Takes Time” by Georgia O’Keeffe
“Die” by Faith Ringgold
“1978-2001” by POPE.L
“Confidence Is” by M. Martinez
“Madagascar #1” by Jaguar Prince
“Black Sands #1” by Manuel Godoy, illustrated by John Raymond De Bard
“Black Sands #2” by Manuel Godoy, illustrated by Sampaio
“Black Sands #7” by Manuel Godoy, illustrated by David Lenormand
“Black Sands #10” by Manuel Godoy, illustrated by David Lenormand
“Inca #1” by Manuel Godoy, illustrated by Eder Meddisas
“Ineola #1” by Geiszel Godoy and Manuel Godoy
“Cosmic Girls #1” by Manuel Godoy, illustrated by Joshua Bullock
“Flame #5” by Everett Montgomery, illustrated by Jalisha McCoy
“Flame #6” by Everett Montgomery, illustrated by Jalisha McCoy
“Andika #1” by Nanzo
“Crossing Lines” by Keith Haring, illustrated by Jean-Michel Basquait
“Inside This Dress, God Turned My Pain Into Rose Petals” by Dakima Maria
“TED Talks” by Chris Anderson
“Shuri” by Nic Stone
“The Help” by Kathryn Stockett
“The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac Shakur
“Up South” by Robert Lashley
“Poetry from the Masters” edited by Useni Eugene Perkins
“Portland Diary Short Stories 2016/2017” by Jamie Berrout
“Hidden Figures” by Margot Lee Shetterly
“Care Work Dreaming Disability Justice” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
“Crip Kinship - The Disability Justice & Art Activism of Sins Invalid” by Shayda Kafai
“Year of the Tiger - An Activist’s Life” by Alice Wong
“Surpassing Certainty” by Janet Mock
“We Will Be Shelter - Poems For Survival” edited by Andrea Gibson
“The Awakening of Malcolm X” by Ilyasah Shabazz with Tiffany D. Jackson
“Counting Descent - Poems” by Clint Smith
“Teaching to Transgress - Education as the Practice of Freedom” by Bell Hooks
“Why Civil Resistance Works - The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict” by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan
“The Will to Change - Men, Masculinity, and Love” by Bell Hooks
“Not Without Laughter” by Langston Hughes
“God Help the Child” by Toni Morrison
“Brown Girl Brownstones” by Paule Marshall
“Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Flash of the Spirit - African & Afro-American Art & Philosophy” by Robert Farris Thompson
“Barracoon - The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo’” by Zora Neale Hurston
“The Color of Law - A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America” by Richard Rothstein
“Binti” by Nnedi Okorafor
“The Ways of White Folks” by Langston Hughes
“One Crazy Summer” by Rita Williams-Garcia
“Patina” by Jason Reynolds
“The Warmth of Others: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson
“Four Hundred Souls” by Keisha N. Blain edited by Ibram X. Kendi
“What Matters Most - Photographs of Black Life” edited by Zun Lee and Sophie Hackett
“The 1619 Project” by Nikole Hannah-Jones
“The Meaning of Freedom - And Other Difficult Dialogues” by Angela Y. Davis
“Soul Healing Miracles” by Dr. & Master Zhi Gang Sha
“Call Us What We Carry” by Amanda Gorman
“It Did Happen Here - An AntiFascist People’s History” by Moe Bowstern, Mic Crenshaw, Alec Dunn, Celina Flores, Julie Perini, and Erin Yanke
“Perspectives on Anarchist Theory #33 2023 - Transformations”
“Freewater” by Amina Luqman-Dawson
“Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music” by Mary-Dailey Desmarais (Editor), Dieter Buchhart (Editor), Vincent Bessieres (Editor)
“Basquiat: The Modena Paintings” by Jean-Michel Basquiat
“Basquiat's Defacement: The Untold Story” by Greg Tate, J. Faith Almiron, and Nancy Spector
“Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution” by Sherri Winston
“The ABCs of Black History” by Rio Cortez, illustrated by Lauren Semmer
“The Hundred Penny Box” by Sharon Bell Mathis, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon
“What is the Civil Rights Movement?” by Sherri L. Smith, illustrated by Tim Foley
“Civil Rights and the Promise of Equality” by the National Museum of African American History and Culture
“Official Guide to the Smithsonian: National Museum of African American History & Culture”
“My Brother Martin - A Sister Remembers Growing Up With the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” by Christine King Farris, illustrated by Chris Soentpiet
“Child of the Civil Rights Movement” by Paula Young Shelton & Raul Colon
“What if There Were No Black Folks?: A Story About African American Inventors and Pioneers” by Toni Abasi Hill, illustrations by Rashid ibn Haliym-Bey
“A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks” by Alice Faye Duncan, illustrated by Xia Gordon
“The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art” by Roslyn Adele Walker
“Afro-Atlantic Histories” edited with text by Adriano Pedrosa, Tomás Toledo. Text by Ayrson Heráclito, Deborah Willis, Hélio Menezes, Kanitra Fletcher, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, Vivian Crockett
“Honey Baby Sugar Child” by Alice Faye Duncan, illustrated by Susan Keeter
“The Flag” by Tameka Fryer Brown, illustrated by Nikkolas Smith
Paul Gebauer - Art of Cameroon - Portland Art Museum / The Met 1979, by Paul Gebauer, forewords by Donald Jenkins and Susan Vogel, introduction by Susan Vogel
“Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum” by Bridget R. Cooks
“Free Within Ourselves: African-American Artists in the Collection of the National Museum of American Art” by National Museum of American Art
“Hair Love” by Matthew A. Cherry, illustrated by Vashti Harrison
“I Believe I Can” by Grace Byers, illustrated by Keturah A. Bobo
“Freedom on the Menu - The Greensboro Sit-Ins” by Carole Boston Weatherford, paintings by Jerome Lagarrigue
“Free As They Want to Be” by Cheryl Finley and Deborah Willis
“Black America Series: Washington, D.C 1861 - 1962” by Tracey Gold Bennett
“Black America Series: Washington, D.C 1963 - 2006” by Tracey Gold Bennett
“The Official United States Civil Rights Trail - What happened here changed the world.” by Lee Sentell
“Dream A World Anew - The African American Experience and the Shaping of America” by National Museum of African American History & Culture
“Mounting Frustration: The Art Museum in the Age of Black Power” by Susan E. Cahan
“Bearing Witness - Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists”
“Charles Alston” by Alvia J. Wardlaw
“Politics Power” by Faith Ringgold
“In Dialogue” Dawoud Bey and Carrie Mae Weems
“Stokely Carmichael and Black Power” by Gordon Parks
“Martin Luther King, Jr. A Life” by Marshall Frady
“Why We Can’t Wait” by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Stride Toward Freedom” by Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Colored Pictures: Race & Visual Representation” by Micahel D. Harris
“Vintage Black Glamour Gentlemen’s Quarters” by Nichelle Gainer
“Vintage Black Glamour” by Nichelle Gainer
“Creating Their Own Image: The History of African American Women Artists” by Lisa E. Farrington
“Chasing After Spirits” by Barbara Bullock
“Two Centuries of Black American Art” by David C. Driskell
“David C. Driskell Artist and Scholar” by Julie L. McGee
“Procession: The Art of Norman Lewis” edited by Ruth Fine
“A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present: Reflections in Black” by Deborah Willis
“Hiroshima” by Jacob Lawrence, authors John Hersey, poem by Robert Penn Warren
“Stitched from the Soul: Slave Quilts from the Antebellum South” by Gladys-Marie Fry
“Chicago Modern 1893 - 1945: Pursuit of the New” by TERRA Museum of American Art
“120 Great Lithographs” by Daumier edited by Charles F. Ramus
“Frida” by Sebastien Perez and Benjamin Lacombe
“Van Gogh and the Olive Groves” by Dallas Museum of Art Yale University Press
“Eugene Boudin Paintings and Drawings Musee Boudin, Honfleur” Anne-Marie Bergeret-Gourbin
“The Artist’s Eyes: Vision and the History of Art” by Michael F. Marmor and James G. Ravin
“History of Art for Young People” by H.W Janson and Anthony F. Janson
“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker
“The Library of Great Masters Bronzino” by Scala/Riverside
“Lena Taku Waste: These Good Things” selections from The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection
“The World of Origami” by Isao Honda
“Animals in the Sky” by Sara Gillingham
“Biographic Kahlo” by Sophie Collins
“Looking At Pictures” by Kenneth Clark
“The Thames and Hudson Encyclopedia of Impressionism” by Bernard Denvir
“The Impressionists At First Hand” edited by Bernard Denvir
“Gauguin” by Belinda Thomson
“Impressionism” by Phoebe Pool
“Library of Luminaries Frida Kahlo” by Xena Alkayat and Nina Cosford
“Brown Girl Dreaming” by Jacqueline Woodson
“Drawing on Walls” by Matthew Burgess, photography by Josh Cochran
“The Hampton Album” by Frances Benjamin Johnston
“Remember Us” by Jacqueline Woodson
“Sitti's Bird: A Gaza Story” by Malak Mattar
“Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine” by Hannah Moushabeck, illustrated by Reem Madooh
“You Are the Color” by Rifk Ebeid, illustrated by Noor Alshalabi
“Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America” by Michael Harriot
“Baba, What Does My Name Mean? A Journey to Palestine” by Rifk Ebeid, illustrated by Lamaa Jawhari
“P Is for Palestine: A Palestine Alphabet Book” by Golbarg Bashi, illustrated by Golrokh Nafisi
“Ida in the Middle” by Nora Lester Murad
“Determined to Stay: Palestinian Youth Fight For Their Village” by Jody Sokolower
“Like Lava In My Veins” by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Shawn Martinbrough with Adriano Lucas
“Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice” by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes and Dawud Anyabwile
“Something, Someday” by Amanda Gorman, illustrated by Christian Robinson
“The Kneeling Man: My Father's Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.” by Leta McCollough Seletzky
“Pet” by Akwaeke Emezi, illustrated by Shyama Golden