To honor Juneteenth, the anniversary of the abolition of slavery in 1865, and to highlight the role race plays in health care and health outcomes in the United States, the Herrick Community Health Care Library has compiled a list of videos and books that offer racial awareness and understanding and are available to reserve for checkout .
Videos:
The Blind Side: This is the true story of how an impoverished and homeless African American teenager gains success through the love of a caring family and a newfound passion for football.- The Express: The Ernie Davis Story: The Express is the inspirational true story of Syracuse University football player Ernie Davis, the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy.
- Fences: This film, starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, tells the story of a former talented baseball player who, bitter about how racism has held him back, takes out his frustrations on the ones he loves.
- Finding Forrester: A gifted African American teen breaks racial stereotypes by gaining acceptance to a prestigious private school and finding himself through writing.
- 42: 42 is a film about the racial integration of American professional baseball by standout Jackie Robinson.
- Get on Up: The life of singer James Brown’s rise from extreme poverty and racism to worldwide stardom is explored.
- Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story: This is a TV film adaptation of the life story of Ben Carson, who rose from life in inner-city Detroit to run for president and become the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
- Green Book: The 2018 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, this film focuses on the unlikely friendship between Tony Lip, a former Italian American bouncer, and world-renowned African American pianist Dr. Don Shirley as the two travel through the Deep South during the Jim Crow era.
- Harriet: Harriet is the 2019 biographical film about abolitionist Harriet Tubman’s escape from slavery.
- The Help: In 1960s Mississippi, a young woman from Southern society dares to start her writing career by focusing on the lives of the African American women who spend their days caring for the homes and children of whites.
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Based on the 2010 book of the same name, this film, starring Oprah Winfrey, is a TV adaptation about Henrietta Lacks, whose cancer cells would go on to save millions of lives and raise questions of ethics in science.
- The Last Black Man in San Francisco: This 2019 film centers on the efforts of a young black man trying to reclaim his childhood home, whose monetary value has increased exorbitantly in gentrified San Francisco.
- Lee Daniels’ The Butler: This movie tells the story of African American White House butler Cecil Gaines, who served eight presidents, from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan.
- Loving: Loving is a true story of an interracial couple whose arrest for marrying one another led to a landmark Supreme Court case against miscegenation.
- Men of Honor: Based on the life of Carl Brashear, Men of Honor is the story of an ambitious sharecropper who becomes the first African American U.S. Navy Diver.
- Miss Evers’ Boys: Starring Alfre Woodard, this film exposes the U.S. government’s decades-long Tuskegee syphilis experiment that was conducted on black subjects who were allowed to die, despite a cure being available.
- Moonlight: This 2016 Academy Award winner is a depiction of a young African American man’s grappling with his identity and sexuality into adulthood.
- Places in the Heart: This 1984 Depression-era drama starring Sally Field and Danny Glover tells the tale of a widowed mother who must try to save her farm with the help of an African American drifter and a blind boarder.
- Precious: An obese, illiterate African American teen, the victim of mental and sexual abuse and a brutal inner-city upbringing, must overcome her struggles for a basic education and a new chance at life.
- Something the Lord Made: A made-for-TV biographical film about the relationship between cardiac-surgery pioneers Vivien Thomas, who is black, and the white Alfred Blalock.
- 12 Years a Slave: This 2013 drama is based on the life of Solomon Northrup, who was born free in New York state but kidnapped and forced into slavery before escaping back to freedom.
- Waves: This 2019 film is an epic emotional journey of a suburban African American family in the aftermath of a violent tragedy.
Books:
- The ABCs of Diversity: Helping Kids (and Oursleves!) Embrace Our Differences, by Carolyn B. Helsel and Y. Joy Harris-Smith: This 2020 title helps parents to teach their children about diversity while raising kids who respect differences and honor similarities.
- Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine, by Damon Tweedy, M.D.: This book is by a black doctor who reflects on how race influences the field of medicine, both for black doctors and patients.
- Cross-Cultural Medicine, by JudyAnn Bigby: To give health-care workers a better understanding of diversity among patients, this book explores the general health problems and risks, along with spiritual and religious issues, among members of different racial, ethnic, and cultural groups.
- The Doctor with an Eye for Eyes: The Story of Dr. Patricia Bath, by Julia Finley Mosca: This picture book in rhyme tells the inspirational story of an African American eye doctor who grew up during the civil rights movement.
- Every Day I Fight, by Stuart Scott, with Larry Platt: This is a memoir of former ESPN SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott and his determined fight against appendiceal cancer.
- Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law, by Haben Girma: This memoir is an account of the struggles and triumphs of an African American woman who was the first deaf-blind graduate of Harvard Law School.
- I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to The Blind Side and Beyond, by Michael Oher: This is the autobiography of Michael Oher, the football star and subject of the hit movie The Blind Side, who rose above poverty and homelessness.
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot: This is the story of an African American woman, Henrietta Lacks, whose cancer cells have been the basis for a vast amount of research as well as inquiries into the ethics of science and medicine.
- Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Health Care, by Dayna Bowen Matthew: This book highlights the long-standing disparity in health care between white Americans and people of racial and ethnic minorities.
- My Love Story, by Tina Turner: This is an inspiring memoir from singer Tina Turner, who overcame many obstacles in her life and career.
- Teach Your Dragon About Diversity, by Steve Herman: This picture book teaches kids the benefits of respecting and embracing diversity in others.
Source: Taylor, Jamila, “Racism, Inequality, and Healthcare for African Americans,” https://tcf.org/content/report/racism-inequality-health-care-african-americans/?agreed=1
