Protest, Immigration, and Civic Action Reading List
As protests like No Kings continue to unfold across the country, they serve as powerful reminders of the long-standing struggles for justice, equity, and civic participation. In response to this moment, we’ve curated a reading list that explores the themes of protest, immigration, and civic action—offering historical context and critical insight into the forces shaping today’s movements. From the border to the ballot box, these books illuminate the roots of resistance and the pathways to change. Whether you’re organizing on the ground, teaching in the classroom, or simply trying to make sense of the headlines, this collection is designed to inform, inspire, and empower.
Behind Crimmigration: ICE, Law Enforcement, and Resistance in America by Felicia Arriaga
2024 Outstanding Book Award, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences
“Behind Crimmigration explores the racialized effects and human costs of a local law enforcement agency’s decision to collaborate with ICE. . . . [A]n essential window into present politics.”—Inquest
An important regional study on the criminalization of immigration. . . . Highly recommended”—CHOICE
“Arriaga offers a novel and important contribution to contemporary research examining the interconnectedness of local law enforcement officials (LEOs) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”—Ethnic and Racial Studies
Policing Los Angeles: Race, Resistance, and the Rise of the LAPD by Max Felker-Kantor
“The attention paid in Policing Los Angeles to liberal law and order is particularly valuable to current discussions of mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the militarization of police . . . Felker-Kantor also demonstrates impressive archival breadth.”—H-Net Reviews
“Policing Los Angeles vividly captures–better than any other book on the market–both the rise of modern police power and the emergence of a social movement strong enough to challenge it.”–Christopher Agee, University of Colorado Denver
Nonviolence Before King: The Politics of Being and the Black Freedom Struggle by Anthony C. Siracusa
Justice, Power, and Politics Series
“Siracusa offers a thorough exposition of some Black activists’ embrace of nonviolence as an ethical and political strategy for challenging Jim Crow from the 1920s through the early 1960s.”—Journal of African American History
“Compelling. . . . Siracusa’s monograph represents a decisive contribution to our understanding of the Black freedom movement.”—Reading Religion
“Siracusa . . . considers the importance of historical legacy in focusing on the genealogy of nonviolence as a political tool in the ongoing struggle for freedom and equality.”—Choice
The Young Lords: A Radical History by Johanna Fernández
2021 Frederick Jackson Turner Award, Organization of American Historians
2021 Merle Curti Social History Award, Organization of American Historians
2021 Liberty Legacy Foundation Award, Organization of American Historians
2020 New York City Book Awards, The New York Society Library
2021 American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation
“Like so many other organizations in the United States that were both leftist and radical, the Young Lords’ history has been removed from most recollections of the period known as the Sixties until now. Fernandez’s work is a bold, brilliant and engaging challenge to this omission.”—CounterPunch
“An exhaustive and enlightening study of [the Young Lords’] history [that] makes the case for their influence as profound thinkers as well as highly capable street activists. . . . Fernández’s [book] distinguishes itself by providing solid, incredibly detailed historical research. . . . It also places them in the context of the political and social debates that shaped the era and reveals how so much of their activism centered on the same issues—housing, health, education, and the marginalization of women, the LGBTQ community, and the working poor—that we face today.”—The Nation
Up Against the Law: Radical Lawyers and Social Movements, 1960s–1970s by Luca Falciola
Justice, Power, and Politics Series
“Exceptionally thorough. . . . A masterful account of radical lawyers’ involvement in the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s.”—Dalia Fuleihan, National Lawyers Guild Review
“An eminently readable book, which should find a place in the library of anyone interested in American Studies. . . . [A] rare gem in the literature on social movements in the Long Sixties.”—Gerd-Rainer Horn, Histoire@Politique
Midwest Unrest: 1960s Urban Rebellions and the Black Freedom Movement by Ashley Howard
Justice, Power, and Politics Series
“Ashley Howard confronts head-on the myth that the Midwest is ‘too nice for racism.’ Her unpacking of the causes of urban uprisings and their impact on current-day race relations will resonate from the Midwest to the Rust Belt and beyond.”—Nikki Brown, author of Private Politics and Public Voices: Black Women’s Activism from World War I to the New Deal
“An adroit analysis of the intersections of race with class, gender, and regional discourse that offers new insights into postwar civil rights activism in the Midwest.”—Brent M. S. Campney, author of Hostile Heartland: Racism, Repression, and Resistance in the Midwest
Chicago, 1968: Policy and Protest at the Democratic National Convention by Nicolas W. Proctor
A Reacting to the Past Gamebook
In August 1968, Democrats gather at their National Convention in Chicago to debate a platform for a deeply divided party. Factions are split over issues such as civil rights, infrastructure, and the war on poverty—not to mention the war in Vietnam. Meanwhile, crowds of protesters descend upon the city. Impassioned antiwar demonstrators plan sit-ins and marches, while the absurdist Yippies, determined to make a mockery of the convention, intend to nominate a pig for president. Journalists flood the area to cover the stories of the delegates and protesters. Over the course of this game, players will develop a better understanding of the complexities of the social and cultural tumult that has come to be known as “the Sixties.”