Signal Boost Supplement - Better Sources than Me

Signal Boost is a personal project, designed to amplify the voices, history, work, and more of people, including women, of color, Jewish people, and communities and organizations doing important work to towards Social Justice. To honor the spirit of this project, I am going to attempt to update this page with resources I've turned to in order to make sure that I give credit where it belongs, but also to honor the spirit of the concept of Signal Boost - I want to amplify the voices of others and so I want to make sure you have access to those voices.

Nonfiction Books
Black Americans in Congress 1870-2007. This was prepared under the direction of The Committee on House Administration for the U.S. House of Representatives and lists Robert A. Brady, Chairman and Vernon J. Ehlers, Ranking Minority Member.

From Slavery to Freedom,  (As of the publishing of this page, it's in its 9th edition), by John Hope Franklin, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (This book as referenced by the Black Americans in Congress, the publisher describes it as, "the most revered, respected, and honored text on the market."

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. I cannot say enough about this book. It is heartbreaking to understand how we have been complacent in a modern form of enslavement of other human beings through our criminal justice system. I recommend watching 13th in connection to reading this book.

Podcasts 
Another Round with Heben and Tracy - created by BuzzFeeed - This is a Podcast of two Black Women (one a U.S. Southern, the other an immigrant from Ethiopia, which I love because it provides a snippet of the diversity of being Black in America today). They interview amazing people. Their interviewing style is possibly the best I've ever listened too. They are funny and series. They tackle big issues with heart. Their podsquad puts together a fabulous Newsletter that is far better than anything you'll find on my blog.

Code Switch on NPR with Gene Dempsy (Black Male) and Shereen Marisol Meraji (" a native Californian with family roots in Puerto Rico and Iran"). I love this podcast because it discusses race from different perspectives (not just different races, but also from different genders). They get personal and are honest about what it's like to try an have a Podcast on NPR, with an audience that may sometimes feel alienated by not understanding what they're talking about (there's a great episode on the explanatory comma). I also cannot say enough great things about this podcast.

Movies/TV/Other
13th, Netflix Documentary, directed by Ava DuVernay, described as "scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom." I'm a lawyer, I cannot even tell you how many times I've read the constitution. I was shocked to realize that I had never noticed the Thirteenth Amendment states:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

That clause in the Thirteenth Amendment explains why the U.S. incarcerates 1 in 4 people in the world and 1 and 3 women specifically.

Websites
BlackPast.org, Remembered and Reclaimed: An Online Reference Center for African American History Developed by Dr. Quintard Taylor and Associates
BlackPast.org (www.blackpast.org), founded on February 1, 2007, is broadly conceived to provide reference information on people of African ancestry in the United States and around the world. BlackPast.org is supported by a volunteer staff of twelve and nearly 500 volunteer contributors from six continents.  The website has more than 10,000 pages and is free and unrestricted.  New features are added regularly.