Black History Month Public Health Reading List

January 31, 2023

Explore books, articles, and videos recommended by Yale School of Public Health faculty, staff, and students.

Books: Nonfiction

"Black Women and Public Health: Strategies to Name, Locate, and Change Systems of Power" edited by Stephanie Y. Evans, Sarita K. Davis, Leslie R. Hinkson, and Deanna J. Wathington
"Body and Soul: The Black Panther and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination" by Alondra Nelson
"Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad" by Matthew F. Delmont
"Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot" by Mikki Kendall
"How the Word is Passed" by Clint Smith
"How to be an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi
"Infectious Fear: Politics, Disease, and the Health Effects of Segregation" by Samuel K. Roberts
"Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction and the Meaning of Liberty" by Dorothy Roberts
"Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present" by Harriet A. Washington
"Racial Innocence: Unmasking Latino Anti-Black Bias and the Struggle for Equality" by Tanya Katerí Hernández
"The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love" by Sonya Renee Taylor
"To Make the Wounded Whole: the African American Struggle against HIV/AIDS" by Dan Royles
"Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want" by Ruha Benjamin

Alang, S., McAlpine, D., McCreedy, E., & Hardeman, R. (2017). Police Brutality and Black Health: Setting the Agenda for Public Health Scholars. American journal of public health, 107(5), 662–665.
Canada, T., & Carter, C. R. (2021, July 8). The NFL’s Racist ‘Race Norming’ Is an Afterlife of Slavery. Scientific American.
Carter, C.R. (2022), Gaslighting: ALS, anti-Blackness, and medicine. Feminist Anthropology, 3: 235-245.
Opara, I., Lardier, D. T., Jr, Garcia-Reid, P., & Reid, R. J. (2022). Measuring Intrapersonal Psychological Empowerment and Ethnic Identity: Highlighting Strengths of Urban Black Girls. Youth & society, 54(2), 573–592.
Opara, I., Lardier, D. T., Jr, Metzger, I., Herrera, A., Franklin, L., Garcia-Reid, P., & Reid, R. J. (2020). "Bullets Have no Names": A Qualitative Exploration of Community Trauma Among Black and Latinx Youth. Journal of child and family studies, 29(8), 2117–2129.
Oro, P.J.L. (2021). A Love Letter to Indigenous Blackness. NACLA Report on the Americas, 53(3), 248-254.
Smith, C. A., Williams, E. L., Wadud, I. A., & Pirtle, W. N. L. (2021). Cite Black Women: A Critical Praxis (A Statement). Feminist Anthropology, n/a(n/a).
Suh S. (2018). Accounting for abortion: Accomplishing transnational reproductive governance through post-abortion care in Senegal. Global public health, 13(6), 662–679.

13th (documentary on Netflix)
"The Body Is Not an Apology" by Sonya Renee Taylor (spoken word poetry available on Youtube)
The Heart Still Hums (documentary short film available on Youtube)