2020 has unleashed a flurry of inspiring activism, with the New York Times estimating that the summer's Black Lives Matter protests may have formed the largest movement in U.S. history.
One thing is clear: So many people protested this year, it's likely you'll be on the lookout for gifts for at least one first-time protester this holiday season, or maybe even before that. And if you're searching for a present for someone who's still on the sidelines, getting ready to protest for the first time, that's OK, too. There's a little something for everyone here — including yourself.
The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart
Alicia Garza
Seven years ago, Alicia Garza changed language (and the world) as we know it when she, alongside Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, introduced the phrase "Black Lives Matter" into the public lexicon. It's since become a rallying cry and a full-blown civil rights movement, focusing the nation’s attention on systemic racism, anti-Blackness, and police violence. With her debut book, The Purpose of Power, Garza outlines her personal journey alongside her organizing work, providing a model of action for future organizers — even if they're not calling themselves that yet.
John Lewis and Andrew Aydin (Illustrations by Nate Powell)
John Lewis' powerful legacy lives on in the March series, a graphic novel trilogy Lewis co-wrote with Andrew Aydin. The three books tell the story of Lewis' history-making life, from his childhood as the son of sharecroppers in rural Alabama to his time as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement. (Start with Book One, of course.) With stirring black and white illustrations from Nate Powell to accompany Lewis' story, the three books paint an intimate portrait as history gets retold from Lewis' memory. The March series is an informative read for anyone curious about the late congressman's life and legacy, but as a graphic novel, it also makes an especially great gift for teen and tween readers who might otherwise feel daunted by the task of learning the entire life story of such a historic civil rights icon.
This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century
Mark Engler & Paul Engler
There's an art to protest — what methods stick; which ones don't — even if it might not seem that way for someone new to protesting. Luckily, there's This Is an Uprising, a book that demystifies the process of protest by walking through the contours that have distinguished a variety of uprisings over the years. There's insight to be gleaned from the tactics of groups pivotal in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, as well as groups presumably much less known in the U.S., like Serbia's "Otpor!" All in all, it reads like an encyclopedia of social movements and societal change.
They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement
Wesley Lowery
For anyone who first started protesting with Black Lives Matter in the summer of 2020, there's a lot of context in need of unpacking. To understand recent protests, you have to at least go back to Ferguson — and that’s where Wesley Lowery's gripping book, They Can't Kill Us All, comes in. Lowery, who was a Washington Post reporter when he wrote the book, chronicles the then-burgeoning Black Lives Matter movement, traveling between Ferguson, Cleveland, Charleston, and Baltimore in the process. Bolstered by on-the-ground interviews, including a talk with the family of Michael Brown (the 18-year-old who was killed by police officer Darren Wilson), They Can't Kill Us All serves as a testament to the power in the origins of a still-growing movement.
Protest!: A History of Social and Political Protest Graphics
Liz McQuiston
The protest graphics you've probably seen on Instagram amid Black Lives Matter protests didn't just pop up out of nowhere. If you're looking for a gift for anyone who’s been keen on sharing and making protest imagery, look no further than Protest!: A History of Social and Political Protest Graphics. The coffee table-ready book walks through the long, fascinating history of protest art around the world. Its roots are deeper than you might think: As far back as the 1500s, the growing prevalence of the printing press allowed people to distribute visual critiques of those in power to the masses. Readers get a deep dive on all of the images that have shaped dissent over the years, from iconic images from the Black Power movement to ad campaigns amid the AIDS crisis.
Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest
Zeynep Tufekci
If there's a tech obsessive in your life who's new to protesting, this is the book for them. In Twitter and Tear Gas, Tufekci deftly outlines the ways in which protest has changed since the advent of the internet. She's a sociologist, ethnographer, and programmer, so it's appropriate that her detailed examination covers as much ground as it does. It should be noted that Twitter and Tear Gas is a bit more academic than others on this list, which just means you need to know your gift audience. (Friends with someone who obsessively follows Facebook privacy news? Could be one for them.) That said, the narrative is carried along by Tufekci's personal accounts of protests in Turkey, as well as interviews with protesters around the world, so it's an engrossing read for anyone who wants to learn more about the interplay of social media and protesting.
Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist
Sunil Yapa
The fiction lovers in your life don’t need to be left out from your gift haul: Sunil Yapa's novel, Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist, illuminates the passion, intensity, and conflict that emerge when we take to the streets. The whole book takes place on a single afternoon during the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organization protests, and the narrative moves between different characters: the wandering teenager Victor, seasoned protesters, Seattle's police chief (and, in that coincidental only-in-a-novel way, Victor's stepfather), and others. Of course, it's a work of fiction, so there's less by way of direct takeaway lessons, but for anyone newly caught up in the emotional drama that can take place even at just one protest, Yapa's novel is a resonant read.
Be Antiracist: A Journal for Awareness, Reflection, and Action
Ibram X. Kendi
If you know anyone who read Ibram X. Kendi's bestselling How to Be An Antiracist, his latest book is the perfect follow-up gift. Be Antiracist is a guided journal packed with prompts for readers to reflect on their own identity and the society that shaped it. It’s designed in part as a workbook for How to Be An Antiracist, but there’s a wide range of prompts. Some pull directly from concepts in that book (“Describe an antiracist state. How would it be any different from society right now?”) while others require little previous reading (“What does resistance mean to you?”). It’s great for anyone who’s been using their foray into protesting as a time for personal reflection as well.
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis
Edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson
Looking for a gift for the teen in your life who's participating in school strikes, or your wilderness-loving cousin, or, you know, just someone who understands and listens to basic science? All We Can Save is the book you’re looking for. Edited by climate leaders Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson, the book puts a long overdue spotlight on the voices of the women who are shaping the climate movement, many of them by turning increased attention to the root causes of man-made climate change, like patriarchy and colonialism.
Picturing Resistance: Moments and Movements of Social Change from the 1950s to Today
Melanie Light and Ken Light
Sure, a picture is worth a thousand words, but a book about protest pictures? Well, then. In Picturing Resistance, Melanie and Ken Light, a curator and photographer, respectively, compile a commemoration of the images that have shaped protest in the U.S. within the last seven decades. Starting with the origins of the Civil Rights Movement, the book moves through images — some well-known and some seldom seen — of people on the cusp of creating lasting change and making history. The goal is to "inspire revolutionary thinkers, activists, and dreamers of all stripes," and, in this case, a picture might just do the trick.
Topics Activism Books Social Good
