Critical Race Theory (CRT)
Racial justice and anti-racism work is intersectional and foundational to the mission, vision, and purpose of the United Church of Christ. The UCC promotes and believes in Justice for All.
However, justice is often antithetical when lawmakers intentionally develop policies denying access to justice for people of color—Indigenous, Asian, African/African American, and Latin descendants. Critical Race Theory was developed as a scholarly and sociopolitical movement examining contemporary legal thought and the role of law in the construction and maintenance of Anglo-European supremacy and dominance within the United States.
Critical Race Theory provides multiple perspectives from thought leaders challenging white supremacy ideology. It also follows a long tradition of human resistance and strategies for liberation necessary for people to use within local churches. It is the role of the Christian Church and its faith leaders to lead the movement for racial justice. Below are resources to assist faith leaders to engage in the work of liberation and justice for all.
1. 1619: Virginia’s First Africans, Hampton History Museum
2. The Middle Passage Slave Trade; The Enslavement of Africans Timeline
3. Association for the Study of African American Life and History 400 Years of Perseverance
4. Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
5. Project 1619
6. New York Times Magazine 1619 Project
7. National Public Radio Interview 1619 Project
8. International UN Decade for People of African Descent
Critical Race Resources
- Sins of the Fathers: The Trans Atlantic Slave Traders 1441 – 1870 by James Pope-Hennessey
- The Slave Trade: The Story of The Atlantic Slave Trade 1440 – 1870 by Hugh Thomas
- The Slave Ship: A Human History – Marcus Rediker
- Slave Religion: The Invisible Institution in the Antebellum South by Albert J. Raboteau
- Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II – Douglas A. Blackmon
- Stony The Road Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow – Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
- Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice
- The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism – Edward E. Baptist
- Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 And The Rise of White Supremacy- David Zucchino
- Shades of Freedom: Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American Legal Process – A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr.
- Faces at the Bottom of the Well The Permanence of Racism – Derrick Bell
- The African Presence in Ancient America: They Came Before Columbus – Ivan Van Sertima
