Becoming a nurse or a lawyer in America means understanding the complexities of the healthcare system or the legal system, and being able to apply a deeper understanding of justice, fairness, and equality to the information that you are being taught theoretically and practically. Understanding your role as a nurse or a lawyer in America goes beyond the education you will gain in a formal setting, and includes the need to understand the impact of the development of either system from a micro perspective. The development of both of these systems did not happen in a vacuum and the decisions that have been made or not made lead to outcomes that are immeasurable for marginalized communities. Here are some resources to assist aspiring nurses and attorneys on their journey to becoming social change agents and empathetic practitioners.
Aspiring Attorneys
Books
- Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
- The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
- The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
- Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
- You Don’t Look Like a Lawyer: Black Women and Systemic Gendered Racism by Tsedale M. Melaku
- Rebels in Law: Voices in History of Black Women Lawyers by J. Clay Smith, Jr.
Aspiring Nurses
Books
- Mary Eliza Mahoney and the Legacy of African-American Nurses by Susan Muaddi Darraj
- Flatlining by Adia Harvey Wingfield
- Just Medicine: A Cure for Racial Inequality in American Healthcare by Dana Bowen Matthew
- Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics From the Black Death to Avian Flu by Phillip Alcabes
- Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot