Exploring Social Justice through Literature

In this video, photojournalist Ben DeSoto discusses "Understanding Poverty," an exhibit featuring images of people and communities affected by poverty and homelessness.

In this excerpt from his memoir, Rodriguez provides a stirring recollection from his adolescence: the first time he experienced racism as a result of being an immigrant in America. As he says, the experience "stays with [him] like a foul odor."

In this interview from National Public Radio, host Terry Gross speaks with Imam Rauf about his dream to build a place where Muslims and people of different refligions can go to learn from each other and coexist.

You can see, hear, feel, and taste the injustice, frustration, and naiveté experienced at this ladies' get together.

In this poem, the speaker addresses his father, recalling for him the lush Puerto Rican landscape that he grew up in. Now, this green can be seen only in his father's dreams.

In this poem, the speaker explores how our culture would be lacking—in people, in music, in movements, in contributions—without contributions of African Americans.

In this poem, the speaker--who is Native American--responds to a series of unspoken discriminatory questions. The reader can deduce the missing questions based on the speaker's responses.

After spending months talking to women in Afghan refugee camps, Deborah Ellis penned this timely novel about life under Taliban rule. Living in Afghanistan with her family, Parvana is a rarity—a girl who can read and experiences life, even for just a few hours, outside the four walls of her home.

In this excerpt, the reader meets two characters from The Misfits: Addie, a girl who is exceptionally tall and smart for a middle schooler and Joe, who is creative and feminine in a way that makes his peers nervous.

Maleeka gets made fun of at school about her clothes, her grades, even the color of her skin. In this chapter, she talks about getting teased on a school trip and how even her friend Char was ashamed to be seen with her because of her clothes.

In this poem, a black woman carefully analyzes her interaction with a white waitress, whose actions, although civil, are smoldering with superiority.

"Hope, Despair and Memory" is an address given by Elie Wiesel on December 11, 1986, the date Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Wiesel is an author and humanitarian and is known for writing about his experience as a survivor of the Holocaust.

It may seem like an empty stomach is the worst thing about being poor, but for Junior it’s not being able to save his best friend.

Like many schools being called on to reconsider their mascot, the University of Mississippi convenes a student-run committee to find a replacement for theirs—a Confederate soldier.

In this excerpt, the narrator, a young Chinese girl, poses as a boy with forged papers, trying to gain entry into the United States. When she realizes the American immigration agents are checking identity papers at the dock, she fights past them and runs for her life.

Linda Schubert recounts the fear that consumed her Jewish family living in Nazi-Germany in the late 1930s. Each family member endured individual stress and anxiety, but each also contributed to the family's greater good of the family.

After her father's death, Esperanza and her mother are left with few options and forced to flee to America. The immigration officers are only the first obstacle they must face. Beyond them, the Great Depression and an uncertain future awaits.

Rosie's mother and father did not marry out of love, and her mother writes haiku as an escape. After entering a contest, a man comes to deliver her prize—a framed picture. Angered by this intrusion, Rosie's father destroys the picture. In her anguish, Rosie's mother explains her marriage to her daughter.

Although her husband died in the September 11 attack, Arissa is targeted for being Muslim. In this excerpt, she is held up by a group of men who berate her and threaten to kill her until they realize she is pregnant.

In this video, young people reflect on society's rules for what males and females can and cannot do.

This poem's speaker describes being bullied and feeling depressed and skipping school to avoid the harassment. Spiraling downhill emotionally, the speaker ultimately comes to accept and appreciate his/her unique identities.