The Sterling Morton Library’s collections are rich with botanical and horticultural materials, including more than 7,000 botanical and horticultural e-books available for browsing, borrowing, and research by Arboretum members, staff, and volunteers.

Recently, this collection has expanded to reflect a wider range of voices and perspectives. This e-book reading list is a starting place to explore resources that speak to the intersection of racial justice, anti-racism, and the environment.

Recommended Reading List

In the Sterling Morton Library’s e-book collection you will find a number of valuable resources. With the barcode on the back of your Sterling Morton Library card, you’re able to access these and other titles from the Library’s e-book collection.

• Alkon, Alison Hope. Black, White, and Green: Farmers Markets, Race, and the Green Economy, University of Georgia Press, 2012.
• Carney, Judith Ann.  Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas, Harvard University Press, 2002.
• Deming, Alison, and Lauret Savoy. The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World, Milkweed Editions, 2011.
• Emmett, Robert S. Cultivating Environmental Justice: A Literary History of U.S. Garden Writing, University of Massachusetts Press, 2016.
• Finney, Carolyn. Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors, University of North Carolina Press, 2014.
• Gilio-Whitaker, Dina. As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock, Beacon Press, 2019.
• Glave, Dianne D.Rooted in the Earth: Reclaiming the African American Environmental Heritage, Chicago Review Press, 2010.
• Hood, Walter, and Grace Mitchell Tada. Black Landscapes Matter, University of Virginia Press, 2020.
• Indigenous Environmental Justice, edited by Karen Jarratt-Snider, and Marianne O. Nielsen, University of Arizona Press, 2020.
• Kimmerer, Robin. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, Milkweed Editions, 2013. (Leafing Through the Pages, February 2021).
• Landscape and Race in the United States, edited by Richard Schein, Taylor & Francis Group, 2006.
• Lanham, J. Drew. The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, Milkweed Editions, 2016. (Leafing Through the Pages, April 2021).
• Osseo-Asare, Abena Dove. Bitter Roots: The Search for Healing Plants in Africa, University of Chicago Press, 2014.
• Penniman, Leah. Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018.
• Saad, Layla F. Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor, Sourcebooks, 2020.
• Savoy, Lauret. Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape, Catapult, 2013.

Not sure where your library card is or not yet registered as a library patron? Please contact library@mortonarb.org and one of our librarians will assist you!