Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation Deputy Director Gladys Washington accepted the Berea College Service Award on March 28, 2019. The award was created "to honor persons who in their daily lives and their service to humanity have exemplified the Berea Commitments."
At the service convocation, Gladys delivered a powerful speech detailing how her childhood in segregated Ocala, Florida, propelled her into a career fighting for social justice in the South.
While writing her speech, Gladys found herself referencing many influential authors and artists. She decided to create a reading list and a playlist as gifts to the audience. You can stream Gladys' playlist on Spotify.
Reading List
Michelle Alexander: “The New Jim Crow”
Bonnie Allen: “We Are Overcome”
James Baldwin: “The Fire Next Time”
Amiri Baraka: “Somebody Blew up America”
Douglas A Blackmon: “Slavery by Another Name”
Angela Glover Blackwell, Stewart Kwoh and Manuel Pastor: “Searching for the Uncommon Common Ground”
Ta-Nehisi Coates: “Between the World and Me”
“We Were Eight Years in Power”
Angela Y. Davis: “Women, Culture and Politics”
“Women, Race and Class”
“The Prison Industrial Complex”
Robin DiAngelo: “White Fragility”
W.E.B. Du Bois: “The Souls of Black Folk”
Frantz Fanon: “The Wretched of the Earth”
Nikky Finney: “Head Off & Split”
Mindy Thompson Fullilove: “Root Shock”
Jasmine Guy: “Afeni Shakur: Evolution of a Revolutionary”
Trudier Harris: “Summer Snow”
Zora Neale Hurston: “Their Eyes Were Watching God”
Otis Johnson: "From N Word to Mr. Mayor"
Morgan Jerkins: “This Will Be my Undoing”
Nicholas Lemann: “The Promised Land”
Nancy MacLean: “Democracy in Chains”
Wes Moore: “The Other Wes Moore”
Eugene Robinson: “Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America”
Jesmyn Ward: “Sing, Unburied, Sing”
Isabel Wilkerson: “The Warmth of Other Suns”
Richard Wright: “Native Son”
“Leading from Within: Poetry that Sustains the Courage to Lead” (Various Authors)
“All the Women in My Family Sing” (Various Authors)
Playlist
India Arie: “What If”
Blaak Lung: “Rise”
Chronixx: “Start a Fyah”
“Black is Beautiful”
Andra Day: “Stand up for Something:
Marvin Gaye: “What’s Going On”
“Mercy Mercy Me”
Morgan Heritage: “Modern Man”
Israel Vibration and Roots Radics: “War/No More Trouble”
The Last Poets: “When the Revolution Comes”
Lil Duval featuring Snoop Dogg: “Smile (Living My Best Life)”
Bob Marley and the Wailers: “Slave Driver”
“Get Up, Stand Up”
“Redemption Song”
Damian Marley: “Speak Life”
“Slave Mill”
Ziggy Marley: “See Dem Fake Leaders”
Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes: “Wake Up Everybody”
O’Jays: “Love Train”
Queen Ifrica: “Stand Up”
2pac Shakur: “Keep Ya Head Up”
“Changes”
Garnett Silk: “Love is the Answer”
Nina Simone: “Strange Fruit”
“Mississippi Goddam”
“To Be Young, Gifted and Black”
Richie Spice & Chronixx: “Unity We Need”
The Vintage Babies Maimouna Youssef & DJ Dummy: “Shine Your Light”
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