A Raleigh book drive has collected nearly 2,000 books this month to give to children, promoting literacy as a way to honor the history of Black political prisoners and Black resistance.
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Shai Siddhi, creator of the Black August Book Drive, grew up volunteering at libraries and immersing himself in books by Black writers like Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, as well as “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” His mother prioritized reading and education, encouraging him to surround himself with literature.
“The library was a safe space for me,” he said.
The books helped him learn about his history and understand experiences different from his own. They also inspired his interest in writing and organizing and, eventually, his desire to create change in his community.
Siddhi wanted other young people to have similar access to books, but he also saw literacy as one way to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline for Black and brown students.
The school-to-prison pipeline describes how students can be “pushed out of schools and into the criminal justice system” through educational practices that often discriminate against certain groups, according to the U.S. Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys.
The commission’s 2025 annual report found in the 2020-21 school year, Black students made up 15% of the student population but 23% of those subjected to a school-based arrest. Black male students accounted for 21% of male school-based arrests, three times their share of the student population.
The Black August Book Drive is one way Siddhi and several other volunteers are working to get books into the hands of Black and brown youth. They have held book drives, fundraisers and discussions to educate people about issues such as housing, immigration and policing.`
But mostly, the book drive is a way to make Black August more “tangible” in Raleigh, Siddhi said.
Black August is a monthlong observance that began in California in the late 1970s, when the experiences of incarcerated Black people became an important part of broader Black freedom struggle.
Much of that history is grounded in the stories of brothers Jonathan and George Jackson, who were members of the Black Panther Party. Jonathan Jackson was killed Aug. 7, 1970, while attempting to free his brother and other imprisoned people from a California courthouse. George Jackson was killed a year later, on Aug. 21, 1971, at San Quentin State Prison.
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George Jackson wrote letters from prison documenting the conditions incarcerated people faced. A collection of his writings became a book called “Soledad Brother.”
Prison writing was an important part of the Black Power and civil rights movements during that period, said Mark Anthony Neal, the James B. Duke Distinguished professor of African & African American Studies at Duke University.
“[’Soledad Brother’] really helps to galvanize political energy and militant energy around the unfair imprisonment of Black people generally, but Black men specifically,” Neal said.
The book contributed to broader movements for prison reform, including the Attica Prison uprising in New York in September 1971, when over 1,000 incarcerated people revolted to demand better conditions and more rights.
The organizers see the book drive as a way to carry that history of resistance forward by helping students learn their history, understand the issues affecting their communities and build a better future.
“We are educating people, we are having conversations with people, we are community building and we are emphasizing the needs of students because we want to either keep them from being in the [criminal justice] system or help them get out,” Siddhi said.
The Black August Book Drive has partnered with several local businesses where people can drop off books during regular business hours, including Juiced! Juice Bar, Lucky Tree and Liberation Station Bookstore. They are accepting books across genres and reading levels.
The team behind the drive is collecting books until Sept. 6, ahead of a free book fair planned for later in the month. The date has not been finalized. The next fundraiser is Friday, Aug. 28 at 415 Hillsborough St., Suite 101 in Raleigh, where volunteers will collect books and host musical performances and discuss political education.
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