Racism and Social Injustice Resources

Tomi Adeyemi, author of Children of Blood and Bone, is a Nigerian-American writer and creative writing coach based in San Diego, California. After graduating Harvard University with an honors degree in English literature, she received a fellowship that allowed her to study West African mythology and culture in Salvador, Brazil. When she’s not working on her novels or watching Scandal, she can be found blogging and teaching creative writing to her 4,500 subscribers at tomiadeyemi.com. Her website has been named one of the 101 best websites for writers by Writer’s Digest.

Michelle Alexander is an acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, author and legal scholar. She is outspoken on the laws that have claimed to be tough on crime but have targeted black youth in a disproportionate manner.

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson is a Georgetown University sociology professor, a New York Times contributing opinion writer, and a contributing editor of The New Republic, and of ESPN's The Undefeated website.

Van Jones is a social entrepreneur, author, CNN political contributor and host of The Van Jones Show on CNN. Famous for his heart-felt 20016 election night coverage, Jones showed up as “the voice of reason” for people in red states and blue throughout the volatile 2016 political season.

Kiese Laymon is a black southern writer, born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is currently a Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi and a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Nonfiction at the University of Iowa. Laymon is the author of the novel, Long Division and a collection of essays, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America.

Bryan Stevenson is a publilc defender, author, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, and a professor of law at New York University School of Law. He has won relief for dozens of condemned prisoners, argued five times before the Supreme Court, and won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color.

Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in Right-On Magazine. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University. Her debut Young Adult novel, The Hate U Give, was published by Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins in 2017.

Gary Younge is an author, broadcaster and editor-at-large for The Guardian, based in London. He also writes a monthly column, Beneath the Radar, for the Nation magazine and is the Alfred Knobler Fellow for The Nation Institute. He has written five books: Another Day in the Death of America, A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives; The Speech, The Story Behind Martin Luther King’s Dream; Who Are We?, And Should it Matter in the 21st century; Stranger in a Strange Land, Travels in the Disunited States and No Place Like Home, A Black Briton’s Journey Through the Deep South.

Born from the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, this new Rutgers institute is a conduit for new knowledge and ideas, providing opportunities for Rutgers faculty whose inquiries address racism and social inequality to work collaboratively and effect meaningful action and positive change. In bringing together scholars from multiple humanities disciplines across Rutgers—from law to language, from philosophy to art, from history to gender studies—the institute serves as a universitywide intellectual corridor that escalates the likelihood that their explorations and findings will inform real-world decisions, providing solutions to problems that have been increasingly thrust into sharp focus in the United States and around the globe.

This group hosts workshops, connects organizations with like-minded volunteers, helps to promote social justice events, and give people clear actions they can take today that will get the attention of elected officials.

The Hate Has No Home Here project seeks to declare neighborhood residences, businesses, and places of community free from hate speech and behavior, providing safe places for conversation, work, learning, and living. The Hate Has No Home Here movement is built around a simple idea: it’s easy to hate people we don’t know. Posters and yard signs are just the beginning. What starts as powerful, positive messaging continues in relationship-building, dialogue, and communal action. When neighbors of different races, religions, and nationalities move past indifference to investment in one another, we knock out the underpinnings of racism and intolerance, and make possible a better future for our communities.

The Immigrant Defense Network is a working group of the Social Action Collective at Raritan Valley Community College. We defend our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and ourselves from all forms of attack, including arrest, detention, and deportation. We struggle for the full freedom and dignity of immigrant students, workers, and community members in New Jersey and throughout the nation.

The Meta Theatre Company of Lebanon, NJ creates live performance for communities to share experiences, heal and grow. MTC’s mission is to create theatre about the issues of white privilege, race, class, gender and sexual orientation, and help audiences create social change in their communities. MTC writes and performs plays that show the inter-sectionality of white privilege, race, class, gender and sexual orientation in the private lives of the characters in the play. The play becomes a tool, and invites the audience to look at how the “day to day” life happenings of the characters are connected to larger systems (like the criminal justice system, health care, media, and education) that impacts the “choices” and lives of the characters. At the end of the play MTC facilitates a “Talk Back” with the audience to raise critical thinking, and formulate action plans to change larger systems in their communities.

RESULTS has devised methods of training, coaching, and supporting individuals to overcome resignation about their ability to make a difference, to powerfully voice their opinions to their elected representatives, and to work strategically with others in local chapters to build public support for ending hunger. Our volunteers get trained on the issues, meet with members of Congress in face-to-face meetings, talk with congressional staff, write letters to their representatives, and write and publish letters to the editor and op-ed pieces in local papers. They hold public forums and work with the media to generate editorials that educate the public and elected officials about the importance of these issues and solutions that work.

This group is a human relations organization dedicated to fighting bias, prejudice and bigotry. They act as a catalyst for individuals, corporations, and community, non-profit, government and educational organizations by providing networking, referral services, educational activities, and promoting the value of diversity.

Local activist, school teacher and political candidate for Paterson, NJ Council-At-Large.

Founded in 1986, The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.

This is the home page for the Black Lives Matter Global Network whih is a chapter-based, member-led organization whose mission is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.

A leader in the domestic violence movement and a national resource center for organizations working with Latin@s in the United States. Based in St. Paul, Minnesota Casa de Esperanza’s mission is to “mobilize Latinas and Latin@ communities to end domestic violence.” Founded in 1982 to provide emergency shelter for Latinas and other women and children experiencing domestic violence, the organization has grown to become the largest Latina organization in the country focused on domestic violence. Casa de Esperanza is also committed to becoming a greater resource to organizations and communities in the areas of sexual assault and trafficking.

The Hunterdon County Anti-Racism Coalition (HCARC) is a collaborative anti-racism action group whose primary purpose is to translate education into positive action against discrimination at the individual, institutional and cultural levels. This group provides a safe space for discussion and information sharing, and offers opportunities to dismantle racism. We are a network of individuals, such as health care professionals, public service professionals, business owners and elected officials, who are committed to working towards a more just system.