Diversity, Equity, and Justice

Diversity, Equity, and Justice Statement

E pluribus unum — “Out of many, one”

Norfolk Academy believes that the diversity of our community leads children to develop a greater sense of understanding, empathy, and responsibility. Our school strives to foster a climate of belonging, so that each member of our Bulldog family feels secure, respected, and valued as an individual. To that end, the school seeks to provide unrestricted access for all students to the enriching relationships and array of experiences that define a Norfolk Academy education. Our hope is that our students and graduates will carry forward these principles to create a just society where all people have the opportunity to flourish.

Breakthrough
at Norfolk Academy

Creating a Just Society - Resources and Recommended Reading

Websites, Articles, and Books

We have developed this list as a resource to help families discuss with their children ways to combat racism and discrimination. This is one step in our commitment to fighting racism and injustice.

The links are a combination of websites, articles, and books, appropriate for varying ages. They've been recommended by several sources, including the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities, which has been a partner with our school in diversity initiatives, and professors at colleges and universities.

Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture: Talking about Race

Teaching for Change: Teaching Young Children About Race (Recommended by the Smithsonian Tween Tribune)

Smithsonian Magazine: 158 Resources to Understand Racism in America

American Psychological Association: Talking to Kids about Discrimination

University of Pennsylvania: Talking to Children after Racial Incidents

New York Times: Talking to Kids About Racism, Early and Often

New York Times 1619 Project (Won Pulitzer Prize in 2020)

USA Today: George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor. What do we tell our children?

National Geographic: Talking to Kids About Race

NPR: Talking Race With Young Children

BuzzFeed: An Essential Reading Guide For Fighting Racism

UVA Equity Center: Actionable Steps

Dr. Nicole Cooke, Augusta Baker Endowed Chair, University of South Carolina: Anti-Racism Resources for all ages

Jason Reynolds Talks About Racism And The Protests (Jason Reynolds is the 2020-21 National Ambassador for Young People's Literature)

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Dec. 10, 1964

United Nations: Let's Fight Racism

* Note that some media outlets, including the New York Times, request to charge readers after a certain number of page visits.

Additional Nonfiction Books sorted by Grade Level

We have developed this list as a resource to help families discuss with their children ways to combat racism and discrimination. This is one step in our commitment to fighting racism and injustice.

The books are recommendations from a variety of sources, including our school librarians and faculty, and authoritative sources outside our school, including the New York Times (a list created by Ibram Kendi), The Virginian-Pilot, Smithsonian Magazine, National Network of Schools in Partnership, Coretta Scott King Book Awards, and Holocaust Center for Humanity.

The books are broken down by appropriate school levels, though some may be suitable for a wider range. Some for younger children are poetry or picture books based on current and historical events. The links provide reviews, interviews, and additional information about the authors and books.

Books with asterisks are available as e-books from the Batten Library Sora Collection. Although the library is closed because of the pandemic, Middle and Upper School students may log in with their school email addresses to access these titles.

Upper School and Adult

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander*

How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America by Moustafa Bayoumi*

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates*

Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People by Ben Crump (Attorney representing the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery)

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson

Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon

Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr. (Pulitzer Prize winner)

Stony the Road by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

Blindspot by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald*

Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America by Jennifer Harvey*

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi*

The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America by Khalil Gibran Muhammad

So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo

An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz*

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein*

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, a collection edited by Jesmyn Ward

Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race. Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us by Ben Watson (who spoke at NA in 2019; nephew of Elbert Watson)

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson*

Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From an Angry White Male by Tim Wise

Middle School

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

We Are Not Yet Equal by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden*

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, adapted by Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza*

Loving vs. Virginia by Lucinda Dyer

Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley

A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 by Claire Hartfield

Claudette Colvin by Phillip Hoose

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston

Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream by Blair Imani

This Book Is Anti-Racist by Tiffany Jewell

Breaking Through by Francisco Jiménez

Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom by Lynda Lowery

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

Lower School

What Color Is My World?: The Lost History of African-American Inventors by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Raymond Obstfeld

The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander

Resist: 35 Profiles of Ordinary People Who Rose Up Against Tyranny and Injustice by Veronica Chambers

Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop by Alice Faye Duncan, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

Mixed, A Colorful Story by Arree Chung

Enough! 20 Protesters Who Changed America by Emily Easton

Teammates by Peter Golenbock

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History by Vashti Harrison

Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness by Anastasia Higginbotham

We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices, edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson

Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi

Let's Talk about Race by Julius Lester

The Youngest Marcher by Cynthia Levinson

As Good as Anybody: Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel's Amazing March Toward Freedom by Richard Michelson

Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African-Americans by Kadir Nelson

All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold, illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman

Shades of Black: A Celebration of Our Children by Sandra L. Pinkney

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, illustrated by Laura Freeman

People by Peter Spier

Who Was Rosa Parks? by Yona Zeldis McDonough

Fiction Books sorted by Grade Level

We have developed this list as a resource to help families discuss with their children ways to combat racism and discrimination. This is one step in our commitment to fighting racism and injustice.

Books are broken down by appropriate school levels, though some may be suitable for a wider range. Some for younger children are poetry or picture books. The links provide reviews, interviews, and additional information about the authors and books.

Upper School

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo*

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Invisible Man by Ralph W. Ellison

Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Morrison won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993. The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, was her first novel. Song of Solomon (1977) won the National Book Critics Circle Award and Beloved (1987) won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a film in 1998.)

Monster by Walter Dean Myers*

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely