Resources on Racial Equity
Church Statements:
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Brothers and Sisters to Us: Pastoral Letter on Racism,” (1979); https://www.usccb.org/committees/african-american-affairs/brothers-and-sisters-us.
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Open Wide our Hearts,” (2018); http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/racism/upload/open-wide-our-hearts.pdf
Pontifical Justice and Peace Commission, The Church and Racism: Toward a More Fraternal Society, (1989, updated 2001).
Most Reverend Harry Flynn, Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, “In God’s Image: A Pastoral Letter on Racism,” (2018); https://www.archspm.org/in-gods-image-pastoral-letter-on-racism/.
Most Reverend Mitchell Rozanski, “Mass for Racial Unity Homily,” (March 2022): https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX1vQeNLaNxjFHIFnN7oCJEUhy8ZpYxbx9MfTKsLEYYs2aklmYtxkV2VoCQNqwvM4tHCtKNmUdZZRza7H0/pub.
Statement by Archbishop Carlson, retired archbishop of St. Louis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3XdbLJhV2I
Books:
Coates, Ta-Nehisi, Between the World and Me (One World Publications, 2015).
DiAngelo, Robin, White Fragility (Beacon Press, 2018).
Kendi, Ibram, How to Be an Antiracist (One World Publications, 2023).
Massingale, Bryan, Racial Justice and the Catholic Church (Orbis Books, 2010).
Stevenson, Bryan, Just Mercy (One World Publications, 2015). Also an award-winning film available on Netflix and Prime Video.
Organizations and Websites:
Office of Racial Harmony, Archdiocese of St. Louis: https://www.racialharmonystl.org/about. This website offers many resources and is an excellent source of local events and programming.
“Faith and For the Sake of All” offers a liaison training program to deepen the community’s understanding of and response to racial disparities in education, economics and health: www.faithandforthesakeofall.org.
“Health Equity Works” is an initiative at Washington University in St. Louis that works toward accelerating health equity in St. Louis. Read the reports, “For the Sake of All” and “Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide,” both online at healthequityworks.wustl.edu.
“We Stories” uses the power of children’s literature to create conversation, change and hope for a more equitable and inclusive future for all: www.westories.org.
“Metropolitan Congregations United” is a community organization that empowers religious congregations, community groups and individuals to effectively participate in political, environmental, social and economic decisions affecting their lives: www.mcustl.com.
“FOCUS-St. Louis,” anti-racism and racial equity resources:
https://www.focus-stl.org/2020/06/05/anti-racism-resources/.Love One Another Ministries Unity Lab. Through its biblically-based, Student and Adult Unity Lab programs, LOAM partners with schools, churches and organizations to guide participants in taking the practical steps necessary to walk out Jesus’ command for His followers to love one another. This includes having meaningful conversations about race and doing challenging work to bring about healing, restoration, and racial reconciliation: https://www.loveoneanotherstl.org/loam-unity-lab/.
St. Louis Reconciliation Network. The St. Louis Reconciliation Network is driven by a single goal: to heal the broken race relations in St. Louis. They primarily do this by striving to network all of the faith-based organizations in the St. Louis region that are doing the difficult work of bringing racial unity, education, and equality to our great city. They also specialize in equipping church leaders and faith-based non-profits with biblically based tools to lead their organizations in godly conversations about race and build cross-racial unity in their congregations and organizations: https://www.stlrn.org.