Reading

Stephen Lawrence Day

Stephen Lawrence day

Stephen Lawrence Research Centre Reading List

Stephen Lawrence

The Stephen Lawrence Research Centre aims to drive forward conversations that will shape and influence how we think about race and social justice. It intends to honour the enduring legacy of Stephen Lawrence’s life and his family’s ongoing pursuit of justice by asking new questions, debating critical issues, raising awareness, and advocating to bring about positive change.

To borrow a book please search the library catalogue, reserve or request a copy online, or contact your local library to reserve or request books by phone, email or in person.

Key - Fiction (F), Non-fiction (NF), Poetry (P)

Juniors - Early years (0 – 5 years old)

  • An ABC of Equality by Chana Ginelle Ewing (F)
  • Standing up to Racism by Dr Pragya Agarwal (F)
  • All are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold (F)
  • First Questions and Answers: What is Racism? by Katie Daynes and Jordan Akpojaro (NF)
  • Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi (F)
  • The Proudest Blue by S. K. Ali and Ibtihaj Muhammad (F)
  • M is for Melanin by Tiffany Rose (F)
  • Sulwe by Vashti Harrison (F)
  • A is for Activist by Innosanto Nagara (NF)
  • We All Belong by Nathalie Goss (F)
  • Look Up! by Nathan Bryon (F)

Key stage 1 (5 -7 years old)

  • First Questions and Answers: What is Racism? by Katie Daynes and Jordan Akpojaro (NF)
  • All About Diversity by Felicity Brooks (NF)
  • When We Say Black Lives Matter by Maxine Beneba Clarke (NF)
  • My Skin, Your Skin: Let’s Talk About Race, Racism and Empowerment by Laura Henry-Allain (NF)
  • Dealing with Racism by Jane Lacey (NF)
  • Where Are You From? by Jaime Kim and Yamile Saied Mendez (NF)
  • Hair Love by Matthew Cherry (F)
  • My Name is not Refugee by Kate Milner (F)
  • My Hair by Hannah Lee (F)
  • My Brown Skin by Dr. Thomishia Booker (F)
  • Hey You! by Dapo Adeola (F)
  • Clean Up! by Nathan Bryon (F)
  • Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman and Caroline Binch (F)
  • Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills by Renee Watson (NF)
  • Rosa by Nikki Giovanni (NF)
  • All Aboard the Empire Windrush by Jillian Powell (NF)
  • Hoorah for Mary Seacole by Tish Cooke (NF)
  • The Journey by Francesa Sanna (F)
  • The Empire Windrush by Clive Gifford (NF)
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Key stage 2 (7 – 11 years old)

  • The Life of Stephen Lawrence by Verna Allete Wilkins (NF)
  • Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah (F)
  • Coming to England by Baroness Floella Benjamin (NF)
  • Black and British: an Illustrated History by David Olusoga (NF)
  • Who are Refugees and Migrants? What Makes People Leave Their Homes? And Other Big Questions by Michael Rosen (NF)
  • The Place for Me: Stories about the Windrush Generation by Dame Floella Benjamin, K.N.Chimbiri, E. L. Norry and Judy Hepburn (NF)
  • The Island by Armin Greder (F)
  • Migrants by Issa Watanabe (F)
  • Journey to Jo’Burg by Beverley Naidoo (F)
  • Sunflower Sisters by Monika Singh Gangotra and Michael Dias-Hayes (F)
  • The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Rauf (F)
  • Funky Chickens by Benjamin Zephaniah (P)
  • Fly Me Home by Polly Ho Yen (F)
  • The Arrival by Shaun Tan (F)
  • The Wheel of Surya by Jamila Gavin (F)
  • Walter Tull’s Scrapbook by Michaela Morgan (NF)
  • Freedom by Catherine Johnson (F)
  • Empire’s End - A Roman Story by Lelia Rasheed (F)

Teens - Key stage 3 (11 – 14 years old)

  • A Little Piece of Ground by Elizabeth Laird (F)
  • Hope in a Ballet Shoe by Michaele and Elaine DePrince (F)
  • The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon (F)
  • Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Boy by Emmanuel Acho (NF)
  • Maybe I Don’t Belong Here: A Memoir of Race, Identity, Breakdown and Recovery by David Harewood (NF)
  • The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman (P)
  • Run Rebel by Manjeet Mann (P)
  • The Boy with the Topknot by Sathnam Sanghera (NF)
  • Britons Through Negro Spectacles by ABC Merriman-Labor (NF)
  • A Black Boy at Eton by Dillibe Onyeama (NF)
  • Diver’s Daughter by Patrice Lawrence (F)
  • The New Cross Massacre Story by John La Rose (NF)

Key stage 4 (14 – 16 years old)

  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (F)
  • I Am Thunder by Muhammad Khan (F)
  • Go Tell it on a Mountain by James Baldwin (F)
  • Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri (NF)
  • Silence is Not An Option: You Can Impact the World for Change by Stuart Lawrence (NF)
  • Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans (P)
  • Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (F)
  • The Louder I Will Sing by Lee Lawrence (NF)
  • The Colour Purple by Alice Walker (F)
  • Voice of the Windrush Generation: The Real Story Told by the People Themselves by David Matthews (NF)
  • Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi (F)
  • Minty Alley by C.L.R. James (F)
  • Growing Out by Barbara Blake Hannah (NF)
  • My Fathers’ Daughter by Hannah Azieb Pool (NF)
  • Sequins for a Ragged Hem by Estate of Amryl Johnson (F)
  • Black and British by David Bygott (NF)
  • War to Windrush: Black Women in Britain 1939 to 1948 by Stephen Bourne (NF)
  • Black Poppies: Britain’s Black Community and the Great War by Stephen Bourne (NF)

Key stage 5 (16 – 18 years old)

  • Small Island by Andrea Levy (F)
  • The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon (F)
  • Dear Justyce by Nic Stone (F)
  • In Our Mad and Furious City by Guy Gunaratne (F)
  • And Still, I Rise by Baroness Doreen Lawrence (NF)
  • The Case of Stephen Lawrence by Brain Cathcart (NF)
  • When They Call You a Terrorist: A Story of Black Lives Matter and the Power to Change the World by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and Asha Bandele (NF)
  • Allies: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up, And Trying Again by Shakirah Bourne and Dana Alison Levy (NF)
  • The Black Friend: On Being a Better White Person by Frederick Joseph (NF)
  • Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Boy by Emmanuel Acho (NF)
  • “I Will Not be Erased”: Our Stories about Growing up as People of Colour by Gal-dem Magazine (NF)
  • What is Race? Who are Racists? Why Does Skin Colour Matter? And Other Big Questions by Nikesh Shukla and Claire Heuchan (NF)
  • Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga (NF)
  • Black Joy by Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff and Timi Sotire (NF)
  • Living While Black by Guilaine Kinouani (NF)
  • The Dancing Face by Mike Phillips (F)
  • Without Prejudice by Nicola Williams (F)
  • Empire Windrush: Fifty Years of Writing about Black Britain by Onyekachi Wambu (NF)

Adults (18 years old+)

  • And Still, I Rise by Baroness Doreen Lawrence (NF)
  • The Case of Stephen Lawrence by Brain Cathcart (NF)
  • Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad (NF)
  • Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga (NF)
  • The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla (NF)
  • It’s Not About The Burqa by Mariam Khan (NF)
  • Black Tudors: The Untold Story by Miranda Kaufmann (NF)
  • What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition by Emma Dabiri (NF)
  • Biracial Britain: What It Means To Be Mixed Race by Remi Adekoya (NF)
  • Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala (NF)
  • Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (NF)
  • Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera (NF)
  • Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging by Aufa Hirsch (NF)
  • Afropean: Notes from Black Europe by Johny Pitts (NF)
  • We’re Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the End of Empire by Ian Sanjay Patel (NF)
  • Black London: The Imperial Metropolis and Decolonisation in Twentieth Century by Marc Matera (NF)
  • Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain by Peter Fryer (NF)
  • Murder in Notting Hill by Mark Oloen (NF)
  • Narratives From Beyond the UK Reggae Bassline by Henry and Morley (NF)
  • Policing The Crisis by Stuart Hall (NF)
  • Political Blackness in Multiracial Britain by Mohan Ambikaipaker (NF)
  • The Black Atlantic by Paul Gilroy (NF)
  • There Aint’ no Black in the Union Jack by Paul Gilroy (NF)
  • Un/Settled Multiculturalisms by Barnor Hesse (NF)
  • UK Hip-Hop, Grime and the City: The Aesthetics and Ethics of London’s Rap Scenes by Richard Bramwell (NF)
  • Asians In Britain by Rozina Visram (NF)
  • Bangladeshi Family Life in Bethnal Green (NF)
  • Black British History by Hakim Adi (NF)
  • Insurgent Empire: Anticolonialism and the Making of British Dissent by Priyamvada Gopal (NF)
  • (B)ordering Britain by Nadine El-Enany (NF)
  • A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid (NF)
  • Back to Black by Kehinde Andrews (NF)
  • Beyond A Boundary by C. L. R. James (NF)
  • Black British Cultural Studies: A Reader by Houston A. Baker, Manthia Diawara, and Ruth H. Lindeborg (NF)
  • Black Edwardians by Jeffrey Green (NF)
  • Black Experience And The British Empire by Philip D. Morgan and Sean Hawkins (NF)
  • Black Handsworth: Race in 1980s Britain by Kieran Connell (NF)
  • Black Resistance to British Policing by Adam Elliott-Cooper (NF)
  • Blackening Europe by Heike Raphael-Hernandez (NF)
  • Capitalism And Slavery by Eric Williams (NF)
  • Civiling Subjects by Catherine Hall (NF)
  • Claudia Jones A Life In Exile by Marika Sherwood (NF)
  • Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment by Carole Boyce Davies and Claudia Jones (NF)
  • Decolonising The University by Gurminder K. Bhambra, Dalia Gebrial and Kerem Nişancıoğlu (NF)
  • Deporting Black Britons by Luke de Noronha (NF)
  • Dropping Anchor And Setting Sail by Jacqueline Nassy Brown (NF)
  • Empire Strikes Back by Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (NF)
  • Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands by Stuart Hall (NF)
  • Feminism, Interrupted: Disrupting Power by Lola Olufemi (NF)
  • Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy (F)
  • Heart of the Race: Black Women’s Lives In Britan by Beverly Bryan, Stella Dadzie And Suzanne Scafe (NF)
  • How the West Indian Child is Made Educationally Subnormal by Bernard Coard (NF)
  • In The Castle Of My Skin by George Lamming (NF)
  • In The Shadow Of Enoch Powell by Shirin Hirsch (NF)
  • Inside Babylon by Winston James (NF)
  • I Refuse to Condemn: Resisting Racism in Times of National Security by Asim Qureshi (Editor) / contributor Fatima Rajina (NF)
  • Islam in Victorian Britain by Ron Geaves (NF)
  • Keeping Britain White by Maya Goodfellow (NF)
  • London Crossings by Mike Phillips (NF)
  • London Is The Place For Me by Kennetta Hammond Perry (NF)
  • Making Mixed Race: A Study of Time, Place and Identity by Karis Campion (NF)
  • African Europeans by Olivette Otele (NF)
  • Imperial Intimacies by Hazel Carby (NF)
  • Blackness in Britain by Lisa Palmer and Kehinde Andrews (NF)
  • Girl, Woman Other by Bernadine Evaristo (F)
  • Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams (F)
  • Hostile Environment by Maya Goodfellow (NF)
  • Decolonising Feminisms by Denise Noble (NF)
  • Terraformed by Joy White (NF)
  • White Teeth by Zadie Smith (F)
  • West Indian Intellectuals In Britan by Bill Shwarz (NF)
  • Thinking Black by Rob Waters (NF)
  • The Making Of The Black Working Class In Britan by Ron Ramdin (NF)
  • The Long Song by Andrea Levy (F)
  • The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain by Francesca Sobande (NF)
  • The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James (NF)
  • The Black Atlantic by Paul Gilroy (NF)
  • The Birth Of Cool by Carol Tulloch (NF)
  • Somali, Muslim, British by Giulia Liberatore (NF)
  • Racial Capitalism by Gargi Battachyria (NF)
  • Race, Sexuality and Identity and Britain and Jamaica by Gemma Romain (NF)
  • Race Women Internationalists by Imaobong Umoren (NF)
  • Race and the Undeserving Poor by Robbie Shilliam (NF)
  • On Being Included by Sara Ahmed (NF)
  • On Beauty by Zadie Smith (F)
  • New Geographies of Race and Racism by Caroline Bressey (NF)

Further reading:

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