Alabama Learning Tour | Learning & Reflection

Alabama Learning Tour | Learning & Reflection

Agenda & Archives  |  Speaker Bios  |  Learning & Reflection Resources

On our Learning Tour, we witnessed difficult historical truths about slavery and ongoing oppression of Black communities and other marginalized communities. We also grappled with big questions about the injustices that shape the systems we work within and philanthropy's role in them. This learning journey called for both self-reflection and strategic analysis, helping us connect the past to future possibilities and apply these insights to our work.

Our staff and planning team have curated an a Learning & Reflection Resource List below, but invite you to spend time with one or more of these key contextual resources:

Book: White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, purchase the book and access free reading and discussion guides from Beacon Press

Reflections from our staff and planning team on the Alabama experience in setting your own intentions for the learning tour:

Below you will find additional resources curated to support your advance reflection and learning. Please contact ECFC staff if there are additional ways we can support your preparation for our Learning Tour.

Below is a list of additional resources curated by our planning team.  If you have an interest in a specific issue or topic and don’t see a related resource, let ECFC staff know and we’ll help curate a reading list to support your learning journey.  

ECFC Work & Lessons

Racial Equity is core to ECFC's 2023-2028 Strategic Plan.

Lessons learned from ECFC's work with Black early childhood leaders and Native Communities
Thursday Aug 28, 2025
Watch the discussion recording here (requires member login) or contact Krystal Ivery or Rena Large for assistance.
ECFC hosted this information discussion for ECFC members interested in learning what we're learning from two bodies of work that have shaped our racial equity journey:

Foundational Context and Connection Pre-Sessions
September 3, 10 and 16
To help us all arrive in Montgomery ready for a rich and meaningful convening, we hosted a set of foundational pre-sessions to ground us in shared context and ensure that our time together is as impactful as possible.   During these sessions, we provided brief context for the experience we are shaping, and offered space to connect with site visit leaders and facilitators, and with other attendees across place and topical interests. If you missed these pre-sessions, you can watch the recording here (requires member login) or contact Krystal Ivery or Rena Large for assistance.

Caste, class, identity, construct of race

 Book: Caste – The Origin of Our Descent – an “expansive, lyrical and stirring account of the unspoken system of divisions that govern our world.”

  • Related Podcast: Apple TV+ and Oprah Winfrey launched a new podcast miniseries devoted to Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. (6 episodes, 30-60 min each)

Video: Jane Elliott “Blue Eyes - Brown Eyes” Experiment Anti-Racism (7 min) Jane Elliott first gave this lesson on April 5, 1968, the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. It’s called the “Blue Eyes - Brown Eyes” exercise, and it teaches a lesson on discrimination.

  • Related Video: Interview with Jane Elliotwith Jimmy Fallon, 2020 (7 minute video) Teacher and diversity trainer Jane Elliott talks about her "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise," the construct of race and what everyone can do in the fight against racism.

Book: A More Perfect Union, A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community by Adam Russell Taylor, reimagines a contemporary version of the moral vision of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Beloved Community Beloved in which neither privilege nor punishment is tied to race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status, and everyone is able to realize their full potential and thrive.

Video: Civil Rights, Identity & Sovereignty: Native American Perspectives on History, Law & the Path Ahead, Library of Congress

How policy shaped and perpetuates racism and racial disparities

Documentary Series: The 1619 Project - From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, and academy award-winning director Roger Ross Williams comes The 1619 Project, a six-part documentary series based on the groundbreaking New York Times essays, podcast, and award-winning book. The series examines the legacy of slavery in America, and explores how it has shaped nearly all aspects of our society today. From policing to music to capitalism – and even the principles of our democracy itself.

Book: The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein, argues with exacting precision and fascinating insight how segregation in America—the incessant kind that continues to dog our major cities and has contributed to so much recent social strife—is the byproduct of explicit government policies at the local, state, and federal levels.  Link includes webinar recording of author presentation to Economic Policy Institute and other media/formats.

Book: The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement.

Video: An Argument Between Racist and Anti-Racist Ideas. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, historian and author clearly names how race-neutral practices and policies create racist outcomes.  Intended for anyone that cares to create equitable schools, spaces, organizations, and worlds. (54 minutes)

Video: Segregated by Design, examines the forgotten history of how our federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally segregated every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy.  (17 min)

Timeline/website: History Through a Native Lens – Explore this chronological timeline written by
Dr. Karina Walters, containing historically traumatic events, settler colonial policies, and Native resistance movements.  A project of Native Americans in Philanthropy and Candid.

Commentary: Juneteenth from a Black Indigenous Perspective, Native Americans in Philanthropy represents a wide range of Indigenous communities, cultures, and identities, including Freedmen relatives, descendants of those enslaved by Indigenous Peoples or descendants of formerly enslaved people who lived among Indigenous Peoples. Black, Native, and Afro-Indigenous relatives must simultaneously bear the weight of a shared, painful, and complex heritage, while also battling against the intersectional layers of oppression and underrepresentation.⁠ This resource guide is a start to come together to understand, address, and take the journey of healing.⁠

Article: National Park Signage Encourages the Public to Help Erase Negative Stories at its Sites  (NPR, June 10, 2025) The Department of the Interior is requiring the National Park Service (NPS) to post signage at all sites across the country asking visitors to offer feedback on any information that they feel portrays American history and landscapes in a negative light.

Transatlantic Slave Trade

 Book: Written in the Waters: A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging, by Tara Roberts, National Geographic Explorer. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, as many as a thousand slave ships carrying captive Africans sank while crossing the Atlantic Ocean, less than 20 have been found and documented. National Geographic explorer and writer Tara Roberts has been traveling the world documenting these wrecks and tells the untold stories of captive Africans lost at sea in her new memoir.

The Great Migration

Book: The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, Isabelle Wilkerson, details the 70 year silent migration of Blacks from the Jim Crow South to the northern and western states.  A must read for funders outside of southern states for context on how slavery and post-slavery policies and retaliation impacted migration of Blacks to other states, and the impact on those states. Link includes overview, a peak inside book and reading guide.

Documentary Series: Great Migrations: A People on the Move, this PBS docuseries The series tells the story of African American movement over the 20th and 21st centuries to northern and western states and back to the south, and how it has shaped our nation by exploring the meaning behind those movements. What political or economic pressures inspire people to move? Is it more often inspired by hope or fear? Is there even such a thing as a promised land? GREAT MIGRATIONS is directed by Julia Marchesi and Nailah Ife Sims, who also serve as producers of the series. Dyllan McGee serves as executive producer, along with Gates.

 Book: The Southern Diaspora, How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners north and west Transformed America, by James N. Gregory

White Supremacy Culture & Oppression

 Book: White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, purchase the book and access free reading and discussion guides from Beacon Press

Brief: Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture, Facilitating Racial Equity Collaborative (2pgs)

Brief: A Structural Analysis of Oppression, Grassroots Policy Project (5 pages)

Guide: White Supremacy Culture in Organizations, by Dismantling Racism Works adapted by The Centre for Community Organizations, provides an overview of each characteristic, with guiding questions and value statements related to each characteristic.

Article: 10 ways white supremacy wounds white people: A tale of mutuality, American Friends Service Committee

Blog: What Do I Do with My White Guilt? Psychology Today

Book: Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy By Rachel Ricketts

Website/Initiative: Showing Up for Racial Justice, a home for white people working for justice

Workbook: Dismantling Racism: A Resource Book: For Social Change Groups, This resource book is a compilation of materials designed to supplement a Dismantling Racism workshop, which supports organizations to build a shared analysis of race and racism, to engage in anti-racist organizational development and to move racial justice organizing campaigns.

Acknowledging the Past

Podcast: Apathy Is Not An Option, Southern Poverty Law Center, a new podcast about voting rights, fighting hate and extremism, ending mass incarceration of Black and Brown people, and economic justice.  Hosted by Alex Beightol, a social media influencer committed to justice, this podcast delivers raw, unfiltered conversations with activists, thought leaders, and everyday people fighting for change in the South and beyond. (6 episodes, 1hr each)

Blog: In a systemically racist nation, apathy is a luxury Black people cannot afford, by Ja’Kobe Bibbs, a community organizer intern in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Alabama state office.

Article: ‘Critical Memory’ sites remind us of our responsibility to acknowledge the past, reflects on a joint project focused on transitioning from denial to collective responsibility in Germany and the United States, organized by Southern Poverty Law Center along with participating along with members from academia, museums, memorials and foundations in both countries.

Alabama and southern history and context

Case Study: What Grantees Want Fun­ders to Know is a new case study from the Asset Fun­ders Net­work highlighting lessons from the South­ern Part­ner­ship to Reduce Debt (SPRD), a mul­ti­state effort launched by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion in 2017 to help address debt bur­dens faced by fam­i­lies of col­or in the South.

Documentary: Hale County This Morning, This Evening(2018) A portrait of intimate personal moments from the lives of the black community of Hale County, Alabama, forming an emotive impression of the historic South and consequences of racism while upholding the beauty of life.

Documentary: Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power - First person accounts and searing archival footage tells the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights, but for Black Power in Lowndes County, Alabama.

Documentary: Freedom Riders., From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws in order to test and challenge a segregated interstate travel system, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism. (On the PBS documentary site: Find ways to access the documentary, watch a 2-minute trailer, read the transcript and find profiles of Freedom Riders).

Article: History came to Selma, and then left it behind, The Tico Times, 2015

Read: The Children’s Crusade: When the Youth of Birmingham Marched for Justice, The History Channel, “Children became the catalyst for change.”

Podcast: The History Chicks, one hour podcast episodes

Child Care / Early Care

Webinar Recording: Mary Pauper: A Historical Exploration of Early Care and Education Compensation, Policy and Solutions, Child Trends’. Read the paper, or watch the Early Educator Investment Collaorative’s 2022 webinar recording featuring Child Trends authors.

Report & Toolkit: Place Matters: Communicating the Relationship Between Place, Racism, and Early Childhood Development, Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University, offers research-based messaging strategies for talking about the connections between place, racism, and early childhood development and provides a set of recommendations that communicators can use and adapt in their own work. The companion toolkit, Place Matters: Four Strategies to Connect Place, Racism, and Early Childhood Development, provides message guidance and real-world examples to help advocates and communicators put these strategies to use in their own contexts—whether when writing op-eds, developing policy briefs, speaking with media, or creating community engagement materials.

Report: The racist and sexist roots of child care in America explain why the system is in shambles, The Hechinger Report

Read: Tracing the Roots of Systemic Racism in the US Early Childhood System, Catalyst California

Explore: Early Childhood History, Organizing, Ethos, and Strategy Project (ECHOES), Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. ECHOES connects early care and education (ECE) today with its history and activism. Discover the origins of inequities for children, families, and educators and why the fight for a more just system continues. Related works include: Black Women’s Clubs: Progressive Era Activism for Early Education (1890-1920) and Child Care Compensation Movement (1972-2000).

Criminal Justice

Video: Just Mercy, We need to talk about an injustice, Bryan Stevenson – Equal Justice Initiative TED Talk (23 minutes) In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America's unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.

Documentary: 13th by Ava DuVernay (Netflix) – documentary tracing the criminalization of Black bodies and the U.S. prison boom.

Podcast: Justice in America, each episode covers a different criminal justice issue, how it looks and impacts people, particularly poor people and people of color.

Defending Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Report: Whose Heritage? This fourth installment of Southern Poverty Law Center’s report offers an evolving assessment of the threats and harms that find continued life through Confederate symbols, “Lost Cause” narratives and ideologies of white supremacy. The report includes action guides and maps.

Reading List: Countering Attacks on Racial Equity, Equity in the Center curated reading list

Article: The Philanthropic Advisory Complex Is Failing Us, Inside Philanthropy

Article: Dear Philanthropy: These Are the Fires of Anti-Black Racism, Non-Profit Quarterly

Article:Philanthropy’s Responsibility Persists, Exponent Philanthropy report focused on advocating for lean funders (funders with small or no staff) and all funders to focus on providing stability, advocacy, leadership, and funding for nonprofit and community partners.

Toolkit: Side by Side: A Playbook on Centering and Promoting Equity in Early Education (2022), School Readiness Consulting, supported by Vanguard

Brief: Reenvisioning CCDF: An Anti-Racist Child Care System for Families & Educators (2024), National Women’s Law Center

Economic Justice

Book: Decolonizing Wealth, Second Edition: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance, philanthropy's role in systems change and how philanthropic inequity can undermine democracy, by Edgar Villanueva

Article: The Case for Reparations, published by The Atlantic and written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, details how virtually every American institution - public or private - has a history of extracting wealth and resources of the African-American community.

Article: Child poverty bankrupts Dr. King’s dream for economic justice, Economic Policy Institute

Book: The Hidden Rules of Race by Andrea Flynn et al. – especially chapters on wealth, labor, and caregiving.

Policy Guide: Impact of Federal Cuts to Social Safety Net Guides, Southern Poverty Law Center guides to the impact of social safety net cuts on health care, food and nutrition, public education, and housing in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisianna, and Mississippi.

Report: Economic Vitality and Education in the South, Part I: The South’s Pre-Pandemic Position, Part 2: Wealth, Housing and Education, Southern Education Foundation

Education Justice

Article: U.S. still has ‘Miles to Go’ to increase Black students’ educational opportunities, part of the Southern Education Foundation’s Brown vs. Board of Education Resource Compilation.

Family Separation

Book: Torn Apart, How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World, By Dorothy Roberts

Timeline: History of Family Separation, The Gathering for Justice, This timeline provides brief summaries of historical events and eras including slavery, Native American boarding schools, mass deportation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans (1930’s-40’s), Japenese Internment Camps and other historical events intended to, or resulting in, separation of children from their families.

Article: Family separation – a timeline 2017-2022, Southern Poverty Law Center, Long before the Trump administration implemented its “zero tolerance” immigration enforcement policy in 2018, it was already separating children from their parents as part of a “pilot program” conducted in the El Paso, Texas, area and along other parts of the border.

Journal Article: Child Separations and Families Divided: America’s History of Separating Children from Their Parents, Social Work Research, Volume 42, Issue 3, September 2018 (Free article)

Journal Article: A Lineage of Family Separation, Brooklyn Law Review, examines the separation histories of enslaved, Indigenous, and immigrant families, it offers critical context of a reoccurring practice that has had devastating effects largely on communities of color, and across generations. (Free article)

Article: The secret history of the U.S. government’s family-separation policy, “We Need to Take the Children Away”, The Atlantic, 2022. This story earned the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting.

Report: Family Separation in the U.S. Child Welfare System, at the U.S.-Mexico Border, and of Indigenous Communities, American Civil Liberties Union, For the 139th Session of the Human Rights Committee, Geneva October 9 – November 3, 2023

Health Disparities

Timeline/Article: How History Has Shaped Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, A Timeline of Policies and Events, Kaiser Family Foundation, offers an historical view of significant U.S. federal policies and events spanning the early 1800s to today that directly impacted the complex history that shapes racial and ethnic health and health care disparities that persist today for Black, Indigenous and immigrant communities.

Podcast: Critical Condition: Health in Black America, Season 52 Episode 9, NOVA, PBS (1h 36m) Black Americans are nearly twice as likely to suffer from chronic diseases than Whites. Why? From false beliefs that permeate modern medicine to life experiences that can damage human cells, uncover the underlying causes of racial health disparities. Includes Audio Description and Closed Captions.

Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice

Article: Black Maternal and Infant Health: Historical Legacies of Slavery, American Journal of Public Health

Policy brief: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda

Documentary: Aftershock (Hulu), explores the Black maternal health crisis in the United States, focusing on the preventable deaths of Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac. The film highlights the experiences of grieving families and advocates fighting for change, including the establishment of Black Maternal Health Week.

Documentary: Listen to Me, co-directed and produced by Dr. Kanika Harris, National Association to Advance Black Birth explores four women at the front lines of the Black maternal health movement walking the tightrope of racism and birth in America, funded by Black Public Media.

Article: Reproductive Heteronomy and the Black Female Body: Adriana Smith’s Story, Medium.com

Data

Deep Disparities, Persistent Opportunity, Southern Economic Advancement Project Data Dashboard & Project, contains demographic and economic information about, and for, people in the South. Utilize this platform to understand the different indicators that drive the SEAP data dashboards.

2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, provides a comprehensive look at how children are faring across all 50 states.  This year’s Data Booktells a mixed story — steady progress in some areas, setbacks in others and opportunities to do better for kids and families.  In this brief video, associate director of Policy Reform and Advocacy, Karina Jiménez Lewis, highlights key trends from this year’s report.

Loving Cities Index, Schott Foundation, examines 15 cities across the country (including Southern cities) along a wide range of factors — from the opportunities provided in the classroom to access to clean air and healthy foods — to paint a picture of how much each city loves its children.

Child Poverty, Family Economic Insecurity, and Race, National Equity Atlas

A 100-year Review of Research on Black Families, Child Trends, explores the ways in which social science research focused on Black families has changed over 10 decades.  The research is organized into two volumes—Volume 1: 1920 to 1969 and Volume II: 1970 to 2019, considering each era’s social, political, and economic contexts to use the past to develop lessons for the future.  There are multiple ways to easily digest the research including:

Start typing and press enter to search

Scroll to Top