Social Justice & Popular Music: Social Justice & Popular Music

​The Cuyahoga Community College Common Reading text for the 2017-2018 academic year was Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. Over 70% of colleges from 2014-2017 asked their first year students to read Just Mercy. Stevenson’s non-fiction account of working as legal counsel for the Equal Justice Initiative in the American South between the 1980s and today is a powerful narrative that details the personal struggles of those wrongly imprisoned and otherwise victim to miscarriages of justice. As a New York Times bestseller, winner of the Carnegie Medal for Nonfiction, the NAACP Image Award for Nonfiction, and a Books for a Better life Award, as well as an American Library Association Notable Book, this text encourages empathy and has the potential to engage students in important discussions regarding race, social class, the judicial system, and human rights.

The pages in this research guide provide links to resources on the intersection of social justice and popular music that are available onsite at the Library & Archives, or can sometimes be found at a local library near you. Links to online resources are also included.

Also available, a guide to the Rock Hall's 2016 main exhibition, Louder Than Words: Rock, Power and Politics​.