Racial Diversity
Racial diversity deals with the recognition of different racial and ethnic groups within a community. In addition to covering diversity generally, the materials below acknowledge that librarianship, and specifically law librarianship, is a historically white profession. Students and patrons alike can benefit from working with librarians from different backgrounds than their own. In addition, students from underrepresented backgrounds in the legal field can benefit from seeing themselves represented amongst faculty and staff. These resources provide suggestions for dealing with the difficult reality of the lack of diversity that remains in the profession. Several books listed, published by librarians for their peers, provide guidance regardless of one’s career level, tenured or non-tenured status.
Books
1. Ian Haney-Lopez, White By Law: 10th Anniversary Edition (2006).
Haney-Lopez’s book is the critical race cornerstone. It discusses how race is a social construct and analyzes the intersection of race and law. “Ten years later, Haney López revisits the legal construction of race, and argues that current race law has spawned a troubling racial ideology that perpetuates inequality under a new guise: colorblind white dominance.”
2. Frank Wu, Yellow: Race in American Beyond Black and White (2003).
Wu’s seminal book is a starting point for discussing the Asian identity in America. The book conveys alternative viewpoints on various issues, from the Chinese Exclusion Act through the Japanese incarceration, to the development of the “model minority.”
3. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous People’s History of the United States (2015).
This book offers an alternative understanding of the history of the United States through the lens of Native Americans.
4. Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity (2019).
This book discusses how identities are constructed, and how they influence the way we see ourselves and the way we treat others. This book touches on more than race, but nevertheless discusses how race and national origin are truly societal constructs.
5. Shamika D. Dalton, Dennis C. Kim-Prieto, Dr. Yvonne J. Chandler, Carol Avery Nicholson, Vicente E. Garces, and Dr. Michele A. L. Villagran, Celebrating Diversity: A Legacy of Minority Leadership in the American Association of Law Libraries, (2d ed. 2018).
The new edition of this book from the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) focuses on and celebrates diversity in law librarianship by identifying and profiling past, current, and future leaders in AALL. “Like the first one, this new edition furthers AALL's core purpose and organizational values to advance the profession of law librarianship. Just as importantly, it contributes to the history of diversity in the profession by documenting the contributions of minority law librarians to AALL and law librarianship.”
6. The legacy of Black women in librarianship : when they dared to be powerful (Nicole A. Cooke ed., 2025).
This book shares the story of pioneering and influential female librarians of color who persevered despite facing discrimination based on race and sex.
From the publisher: “Black women have historically been hidden figures in librarianship, yet their passion, courage, and tenacity paved the way for future generations of knowledge workers. Profiling more than a dozen librarians, book champions, activists, and pioneers of the profession from across the country, ‘The Legacy of Black Women in Librarianship: When They Dared to Be Powerful’ is a powerful work of archival storytelling that will inspire readers both inside and outside of the library field. Inside this stirring and timely collection, edited by Nicole A. Cooke for ALA Neal-Schuman's Critical Cultural Information Studies series, readers will discover the important stories of many trailblazing Black women who fought racism, sexism, and other hardships in their libraries and communities to become leaders of our profession.”
7. Toward Inclusive Academic Librarian Hiring Practices (Kathryn M. Houk, Jordan Nielsen & Jenny Wong-Welch, eds., 2024).
This book acknowledges that law librarianship is a historically white and female profession based on a variety of factors such as mandatory credentials and years of experience to be considered for a role. This book offers solutions to address this at all stages of the academic hiring process.
Articles
1. Juleah Swanson, Ione Damasco, Isabel Gonzalez-Smith, Dracine Hodges, Todd Honma and Azusa Tanaka, Why Diversity Matters: A Roundtable Discussion on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Librarianship, In the Library with a Lead Pipe (July 29, 2015).
This article is a transcript of a virtual roundtable discussion between librarians. Topics discussed include why diversity is important, where to go from here, and questions for further discussion among readers.
2. Shamika D. Dalton, Gail Mathapo, and Endia Sowers-Paige, Navigating Law Librarianship While Black: A Week in the Life of a Black Female Law Librarian, 110 L. Lib. J. 429 (2018).
This article discusses law librarianship from the perspective of a Black woman. This article progresses by providing an introduction to racial microaggressions in higher education, and proceeds by following the authors’ week, day-by-day. The article concludes by suggesting some much needed changes necessary to reform law librarianship’s culture.
3. Kathryn Russell-Brown, Thinking, Talking and Teaching on Race: Derrick Bell’s “The Space Traders”, 7 J. Crim. Just. Educ. 113 (1996).
This article shares a writing exercise for an upper level criminal justice course where students engage hypothetically with issues of race, crime, and criminal justice.
4. April Hathcock, White Librarianship in Blackface: Diversity Initiatives in LIS, In the Library with a Lead Pipe (Oct. 7, 2015).
This internet article examines how whiteness has seeped into every aspect of law librarianship. This article illustrates some of the ways that this seepage has occurred. It also provides a brilliant bibliography for additional reading.
5. Anti-Racist Resources from Greater Good, Greater Good Magazine (June 3, 2020).
This resource list includes articles about the psychological roots of racism, how to overcome bias in oneself, confronting racism, reducing bias in criminal justice, building bridges, resources for parents, and resources for educators.
6. Courtney Martin, Answering White People’s Most Commonly Asked Questions about the Black Lives Matter Movement, The Bold Italic (June 1, 2020).
A question and answer introduction to Black Lives Matter for people with privilege who would like to learn more about racial justice.
7. Tiffany D. Atkins, #FORTHECULTURE: Generation Z and the Future of Legal Education, 26 Mich. J. race & l. 115 (2020).
This article discusses how lack of diversity in the academy affects law students both during law school and after in the practice of law. This article also explains Gen Z’s participation in the Black Lives Matter movement and the cultural moment of 2020.
8. Jack Crittenden, Why the Most Diverse Law Schools Have No Fear, 27 PreLaw, Winter 2024, at 22.
This article identifies reasons for optimism in 2024 despite the Supreme Court ruling in SFFA v. Harvard and prior to many of the actions taken by the second Trump administration.
9. Miguel-Stearns, T. M., & Laskowski, C. (2024). Democratizing Law Librarianship: Reducing Barriers to Entry through Alternative Pathways to the Profession and Increased Support to Students. A Call to Action. 43 Legal Reference Serv. Q. 104.
This article explores some of the reasons why law librarianship has historically not been a diverse profession, including financial barriers for required degrees in academic law library roles.
10. Raquel J. Gabriel & Jessica de Perio Wittman, At the Crossroads: Law Libraries, DEI & the Future of Legal Information Leading the Way in Advancing DEI: How Law Libraries Can Take the Lead in Creating Inclusive Spaces for All, 29 AALL SPECTRUM (July/August 2025)
A short article on practical ways law libraries can work to create learning spaces with an eye toward a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive future.
Websites
1. CIVIL RIGHTS DIGITAL LIBRARY
“The Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Civil Rights Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale. The CRDL is “a partnership among librarians, technologists, archivists, educators, scholars, academic publishers, and public broadcasters.”
2. NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY & CULTURE--TALKING ABOUT RACE
Resources to help educators, parents, and persons concerned with equity talk about race.
Blogs
1. DIVERSE ISSUES IN HIGHER EDUCATION--AFRICAN AMERICANS
This blog focuses on Black issues in higher education.
2. RIPS LAW LIBRARIAN BLOG
Research, Instruction, and Patron Services Special Interest Section (RIPS-SIS) of the American Association of Law Libraries’ blog. This blog features numerous posts by various authors on diversity and inclusion in law libraries.
3. AT THE INTERSECTION
This blog is the work of April Hathcock, and purports to be “about the intersection of libraries, law, feminism, and diversity.
Short Videos
1. LC Johnson, Women of Color Could Save the World. Here's How We Help Them Do It, TEDx (Jan. 4, 2019), https://youtu.be/5YqB9Ve_B9k.
In this 14-minute video LC Johnson discusses the effects of microaggressions and tokenism on creativity for women of color, and offers a solution to tap their potential.
2. Ibram X. Kendi, The difference between being “not racist” and antiracist, TED Talk (June 9, 2020), https://www.ted.com/talks/ibram_x_kendi_the_difference_between_being_not_racist_and_antiracist?utm_campaign=daily&utm_content=image__2020-06-10&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily.
“There is no such thing as being "not racist," says author and historian Ibram X. Kendi.” In this 51-minute video, Kendi “defines the transformative concept of antiracism to help us more clearly recognize, take responsibility for and reject prejudices in our public policies, workplaces and personal beliefs. Learn how you can actively use this awareness to uproot injustice and inequality in the world -- and replace it with love.”
3. Crudo Creative, The Chronicle Explains the Assault on DEI,Chronicle of Higher Education, (June 12, 2024), https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-chronicle-explains-the-assault-on-dei.
In this 3-minute video, the Chronicle of Higher Education explores the history of DEI and how it came under political attack in the 2020s.
Organizations
1. NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the largest civil rights organization in the U.S. Their vision is to “ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race.”
2. THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION--COMMISSION ON RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN THE PROFESSION
“The mission of the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession (The Commission) is to serve as a catalyst promoting diversity and inclusion within the legal profession and the ABA by facilitating the entry, participation and retention of diverse lawyers. The Commission achieves this by furthering the development of substantive programs and services in which diverse lawyers, law firms and law students will actively participate.”
3. NATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION
“The National Bar Association was founded in 1925 and is the nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges. It represents the interests of approximately 65,000 lawyers, judges, law professors and law students.” Member of the Coalition of Bar Associations of Color (CBAC) established in 1992.
4. HISPANIC NATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION
The Hispanic National Bar Association is “a nonprofit, nonpartisan, national membership organization that represents the interests of Hispanic legal professionals in the United States and its territories.” Member of the Coalition of Bar Associations of Color (CBAC) established in 1992.
5. NATIONAL ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association is “the preeminent professional development organization and voice for 50,000 Asian Pacific American attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students. NAPABA represents the interests of nearly 90 national, state, and local Asian Pacific American bar associations.” Member of the Coalition of Bar Associations of Color (CBAC) established in 1992.
6. NATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
The National Native American Bar Association “shares many of the same goals of diversity and increased understanding of our communities’ unique cultural and legal issues with minority bar associations. However, most of our lawyers are both U.S. citizens and citizens of their respective Tribal nations. Our members, therefore, also share the communal responsibility, either directly or indirectly, of protecting the governmental sovereignty of the more than 560 independent Native American Tribal governments in the United States.” Member of the Coalition of Bar Associations of Color (CBAC) established in 1992.
7. THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION--DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION CENTER
The ABA Diversity and Inclusion Center advances Goal III of the ABA: “to eliminate bias and enhance diversity and inclusion throughout the Association, legal profession, and justice system” by sharing educational and actionable resources.
