INTRODUCTION
This reading guide is designed to accompany Jen Bryant and Frank Morrison’s picture book Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball. We hold the belief that anti-racist practice is a process of learning (and unlearning) over time. Reading Is Resistance sees reading as an opportunity to seed deeper conversations and possibilities for action around racial justice in our communities.
Lesson content was written by Eli Porterfield and was designed to start and deepen anti-bias/anti-racist conversations in families and other learning communities. Editors were Olivia Horning and Conlan Morgan.
BOOK THEMES
JUSTICE, ACTION, DIVERSITY, IDENTITY, COURAGE
THE READ ALOUD
BOOK SUMMARY
Above the Rim: How Elgin Baylor Changed Basketball by Jen Bryant tells the story of how Elgin Baylor experienced and fought against racism throughout his life. The book details the discrimination that Baylor endured during his life such as college segregation, uncomfortable living conditions, being excluded from hotels and restaurants, and more. The events of the book primarily take place during from the 1940s-1950s. Additionally, the book details how Baylor was able to fight against racism by causing the NBA to no longer utilize hotels or restaurants that discriminated. Next, this book provides excellent examples of the anti-bias learning themes of justice, action, diversity, and identity. One other important component of this book is based around how justice and action were achieved through the actions of Rosa Parks, the Arkansas sit-in, and the Kansas sit-in.
FULL READING GUIDE (download here)
For the full reading guide including discussion questions based on anti-oppression capacity building, download below!