Statements Supporting Racial and Social Justice

• From Library Director Jennifer Carroll
• From the MRSPL Board of Trustees

Community Conversation on Police Reform

Watch a recording of the library's community conversation about police reform in the City of Falls Church (held via Zoom on Wednesday, August 5). Learn more about the national Mayor’s Pledge (which was signed by Mayor Tarter in June); the City’s Use of Force Review Committee; the principles of 21st century policing; and what issues lie behind the "defund police" movement. Discussion panelists included:

• Mary Gavin, Chief of Police, City of Falls Church
• Sean Perryman, President of the Fairfax County NAACP
• Steve Mason, HR Director, City of Falls Church (and former Alexandria police officer and investigator with Alexandria’s Office of Human Rights) 
• Jenny Carroll, Library Director, Mary Riley Styles Public Library

Re-Imaging America Series

Neighboring Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) recently held a virtual 3-part series seeking "to strengthen viewers ability to better understand the Black experience and encourage thinking critically about the national and international events and struggles for social justice." Facilitated by Mark C. Hopson, Ph.D. (Director of African and African American Studies, and Associate Professor of Communication at George Mason University), recordings of the series can be viewed for free through the FCPL’s webiste.

• Part 1: History Taught Us: Exploring Yesterday’s Impact on Today
• Part 2: "Why All The Protests?" Having "The Talk" About Race and Racism
• Part 3: "If You Protest You May Die, If You Don’t Protest You May Die" A Generation-Z Perspective on Engagement 
• VIew all three recordings and associated materials...

Read and Learn More on the Issue:

• Conversations About Race: A selection of instant access ebooks and downloadable audiobooks from our Overdrive collection. No waiting lists. Available titles include:
  • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  • I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
  • Just Mercy by Brian Stevenson
  • Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable
  • Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad
  • The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcom X
  • The Nickle Boys by Colson Whitehead
  • Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene A. Carruthers
  • White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Race by Robin Diangelo
  • Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr. 
• Social Justice & Activism: A wider selection of ebooks and downloadable audiobooks from our Overdrive collection on social justice and activism.
• #OwnVoices: "Own Voices are a subset of diverse books that include some type of first-hand experience. #OwnVoices authors share a diverse, minority, or marginalized trait with their protagonist."
• Social and Systemic Injustice: A selection of 34 documentaries on the topic of social and systemic injustice from our online Kanopy film collection.