- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Research Guides
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- 2015-2016 Go Big Read: Just Mercy
- Intersection of Race and Poverty
2015-2016 Go Big Read: Just Mercy : Intersection of Race and Poverty
This guide provides an overview of "Just Mercy" which was adopted as 2015-2016 Go Big Read book. It also offers useful information on related issues.
Slavery to Mass Incarceration (6 minutes)
Published on Jul 7, 2015
The elaborate myth of racial difference that was created to sustain American slavery persists today. Slavery did not end in 1865, it evolved.
Challenging Racial Injustice and Mass Incarceration (5 minutes)
Published on Sep 17, 2014
The Equal Justice Initiative challenges poverty and racial injustice, advocates for equal treatment in the criminal justice system, and creates hope for marginalized communities.
Library Resources on UW-Madison Campus
The New Jim Crow by ISBN: 9781595581037Publication Date: 2010-01-05"In this incisive critique, former litigator-turned-legal-scholar Michelle Alexander provocatively argues that we have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it. Alexander shows that, by targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community - and all of us - to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America."--BOOK JACKET
For Discrimination by ISBN: 9780307907370Publication Date: 2013-09-03For Discrimination is at once the definitive reckoning with one of America’s most explosively contentious and divisive issues and a principled work of advocacy for clearly defined justice.
Readings for Diversity and Social Justice by ISBN: 9780415892933Publication Date: 2013-03-01Book Review
"The book is rich in concrete examples of structural and social inequalities and in personal narratives challenging the notion that the U.S. is a land of equality. We expect that instructors will find its comprehensive nature useful and, more importantly, that students will be engaged by its timely, spirited, and accessible content."― Maia Bloomfield Cucchiara & Davinah S. Childs, Teachers College Record- DVD: Black Death in DixiePublication Date: 2007Portrays capital punishment as an instrument that disproportionately targets racial minorities and the poor. Highlights statistics on the racial makeup of America's death row population, mistaken identification, the toll on those wrongfully convicted, and the effects of the Jim Crow era
Overview Resources on Web
- Equal Justice Initiative: Race and PovertyResources about the race and poverty issues in the United States, particularly about a history of racial injustice, race and jury selection, and sentencing bias.
- Prison Policy Initiative: 50 state incarceration profilesThe non-profit, non-partisan Prison Policy Initiative produces cutting edge research to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization, and then sparks advocacy campaigns to create a more just society. These 50 state profiles, plus one for the United States as a whole, draw on graphs made from two Prison Policy Initiative briefings and other materials they have produced on those states.
- NPR: Report Highlights Lack Of Racial Diversity Among U.S. Prosecutors (July 7, 2015)A new analysis finds that 95 percent of elected prosecutors in the U.S. are white. NPR's Kelly McEvers interviews to Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative about what that means for the justice system.