
CELEBRATE BLACK VOICES
influential classics, and new authors.
Over time, I’ve come to see Black History Month as a time to reflect on how far our community has come, and to shine that light on our Black artists and thought leaders. This year we've chosen to highlight luminaries who've taken the lead in shaping change and movement. Activism comes in many different forms and requires a sense of both community and individual empowerment. Hearing others’ stories of trials, tribulations, and triumphs can play an integral part in heightening our consciousness. So let’s keep that sense of power going and celebrate all these Voices in Action. —Abby, Audible Editor
Interview: Dick Gregory’s Provocatively Titled Memoir Is Still Causing a Stir Decades Later
Staff Favorites
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Becoming
- By: Michelle Obama
- Narrated by: Michelle Obama
- Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites listeners into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms.
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Boring
- By WonderVee on 10-31-19
Leading (and learning) by example
The word epilogue
never really evoked any kind of emotion out of me. It just signaled that a story was coming to an end, or as stated in the dictionary, it is a conclusion or brings closure.
I was happily wallowing in Michelle Obama’s story one morning during my morning commute when I heard the former first lady say, epilogue.
Nooo,
I thought. Please don’t end.
As I listened to her story, I could hear my own mother’s words, There’s no such thing as ‘you can’t.’
I think those same words were baked into Mrs. Obama’s upbringing. She always stuck to her game plan. She had purpose (still does). When the prominent law firm she worked for wasn’t giving her satisfaction, she moved on to city government. Doing for others suited her. Who knew that one day she would give back so much to so many as the First Lady?
When Michelle Obama became first lady, I’m convinced every black girl, stood a little taller. And maybe their mothers looked at her and then looked at their daughters, and said, See, there’s no such thing as ‘you can’t.’
—Yvonne Durant, Audible Copywriter
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The Skin I'm In
- By: Sharon G. Flake
- Narrated by: Sisi Aisha Johnson
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Maleeka Madison is a dark skinned African-American girl. She feels uncomfortable and wishes she had lighter skin. When her teacher, Miss Saunders, who suffers from a rare skin condition, shows that there is more to people than the color of their skin, Maleeka learns to appreciate and accept who she truly is.
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For the young Black women
- By Romee on 12-04-07
For all of the brown/dark-skinned children… but also for everyone else.
Colorism in America has always been a powerful force when it comes to shaping the identities and self-esteem of young black girls and boys. While growing up, The Skin I’m In remained a staple on my family’s bookshelf. The story of Maleeka Madison’s journey to self-acceptance as a dark skinned African American girl is one that I’m sure all can relate to. When the world and her peers tell her she’s undesirable, Maleeka finds it extremely hard not to believe that as well. She eventually learns that not only is she beautiful, but her features are unique and desirable.
Author Sharon G. Flake was one of my favorite Black authors while growing up because she was always able to capture the truths and nuances of many terrible situations experienced by Black youth. With The Skin I’m In, she soothed the hearts and minds of the children who personally experienced this same type of self-hatred brought on by outside views. This audiobook still rings true today as conversations of cultural appropriation, plastic surgery, and the power of social media still plague the way the youth of today see themselves. This story is a reminder that you’re enough just as you are because standing in your truth is the true beauty. —Nicole Ransome, Audible Editor
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Such a Fun Age
- By: Kiley Reid
- Narrated by: Nicole Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young Black woman out late with a White child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.
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This is embarrassing!
- By Anonymous User on 01-31-20
Looking beyond the viral moment
Here’s the premise: A young black woman in an upscale grocery store in Philadelphia is accused of kidnapping the white toddler she’s babysitting. And it’s recorded on a bystander’s camera phone. It’s an all-to-familiar scene that Kiley Reid deftly turns on its head in her debut novel that’s a funny, fast-paced, and empathetic examination of privilege in America.
In Such a Fun Age, Reid carefully examines the delicate and very complex relationships between black women and their white women employers. I was often struck by a feeling of déjà vu watching the interactions between Emira, mired in her own millennial anxieties about adulting, and Alix, her well-to-do white boss.
As Alix launches an obsession-level campaign to get to know Emira, plying her with glasses of wine and Googling things like How do you pronounce the name SZA?,
Emira is preoccupied with real life, like the fact that she’s about to be kicked off her parents’ health insurance. Emira’s code-switching between two worlds is a dance I know well, as the inner-city kid who attended predominately white schools where I was often asked, why don’t you wash your hair every day?.
I was blown away by Reid’s accurate depictions of racial microaggressions in a book she calls a comedy of good intentions,
as she gives voice to those uncomfortable nuances that serve as reminders that the thin line between wokeness and ignorance is more like a gulf. —Margaret, Audible Editor
For Kids & Teens
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A Few Red Drops
- The Chicago Race Riot of 1919
- By: Claire Hartfield
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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On a hot day in July 1919, five black youths went swimming in Lake Michigan, unintentionally floating close to the white beach. An angry white man began throwing stones at the boys, striking and killing one. Racial conflict on the beach erupted into days of urban violence that shook the city of Chicago to its foundations. This mesmerizing narrative draws on contemporary accounts as it traces the roots of the explosion that had been building for decades in race relations, politics, business, and clashes of culture.
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Excellent book!
- By Eric Leafblad on 06-03-18
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A Good Kind of Trouble
- By: Lisa Moore Ramée
- Narrated by: Imani Parks
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is to follow the rules. (Oh, and she’d also like to make it through seventh grade with her best friendships intact, learn to run track, and have a cute boy see past her giant forehead.) But in junior high, it’s like all the rules have changed. Now she’s suddenly questioning who her best friends are and some people at school are saying she’s not black enough. Wait, what?
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Book belongs in every middle school library!
- By T. B. Brodie on 02-09-20
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All American Boys
- By: Jason Reynolds, Brendan Kiely
- Narrated by: Guy Lockard, Keith Nobbs
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A bag of chips. That's all 16-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad's pleadings that he's stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad's resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad's every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered.
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Thought provoking
- By Candik24 on 02-17-19
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All the Days Past, All the Days to Come
- By: Mildred D. Taylor
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In her 10th book, Mildred Taylor completes her sweeping saga about the Logan family of Mississippi, which is also the story of the civil rights movement in America of the 20th century. Cassie Logan, first met in Song of the Trees and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is a young woman now, searching for her place in the world, a journey that takes her from Toledo to California, to law school in Boston, and, ultimately, in the '60s, home to Mississippi to participate in voter registration.
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Amazing
- By Amazon Customer on 01-09-20
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A Few Red Drops
- The Chicago Race Riot of 1919
- By: Claire Hartfield
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On a hot day in July 1919, five black youths went swimming in Lake Michigan, unintentionally floating close to the white beach. An angry white man began throwing stones at the boys, striking and killing one. Racial conflict on the beach erupted into days of urban violence that shook the city of Chicago to its foundations. This mesmerizing narrative draws on contemporary accounts as it traces the roots of the explosion that had been building for decades in race relations, politics, business, and clashes of culture.
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Excellent book!
- By Eric Leafblad on 06-03-18
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A Good Kind of Trouble
- By: Lisa Moore Ramée
- Narrated by: Imani Parks
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is to follow the rules. (Oh, and she’d also like to make it through seventh grade with her best friendships intact, learn to run track, and have a cute boy see past her giant forehead.) But in junior high, it’s like all the rules have changed. Now she’s suddenly questioning who her best friends are and some people at school are saying she’s not black enough. Wait, what?
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Book belongs in every middle school library!
- By T. B. Brodie on 02-09-20
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All American Boys
- By: Jason Reynolds, Brendan Kiely
- Narrated by: Guy Lockard, Keith Nobbs
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A bag of chips. That's all 16-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad's pleadings that he's stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad's resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad's every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered.
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Thought provoking
- By Candik24 on 02-17-19
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All the Days Past, All the Days to Come
- By: Mildred D. Taylor
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In her 10th book, Mildred Taylor completes her sweeping saga about the Logan family of Mississippi, which is also the story of the civil rights movement in America of the 20th century. Cassie Logan, first met in Song of the Trees and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is a young woman now, searching for her place in the world, a journey that takes her from Toledo to California, to law school in Boston, and, ultimately, in the '60s, home to Mississippi to participate in voter registration.
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Amazing
- By Amazon Customer on 01-09-20
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Black Enough
- By: Ibi Zoboi, Tracey Baptiste, Coe Booth, and others
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Ron Butler
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi and featuring some of the most acclaimed best-selling black authors writing for teens today - Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and black in America. A selection of the Schomburg Center's Black Liberation Reading List.
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Good book
- By MzL8dy on 05-10-19
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The Book of Awesome Black Americans: Scientific Pioneers, Trailblazing Entrepreneurs, Barrier-Breaking Activists and Afro-Futurists
- The Book of Awesome Series, Book 2
- By: Monique L. Jones
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Black Americans who have shaped their country and beyond: We are familiar with a handful of African Americans who are mentioned in American history books, but there are also countless others who do not get recognized in mainstream media. Their actions may not have appeared to shake the world, but their contributions to shifting American culture were just as groundbreaking.
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Child of the Dream
- A Memoir of 1963
- By: Sharon Robinson
- Narrated by: Sharon Robinson
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In January of 1963, Sharon Robinson turned 13 the night before George Wallace declared on national television "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" in his inauguration for governor of Alabama. That was the start of a year that would become one of the most pivotal years in the history of America. As the daughter of Jackie Robinson, Sharon had incredible access to some of the most important events of the era.
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Told and read the woman who lived it!
- By Passion Turtle on 02-22-20
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From the Desk of Zoe Washington
- By: Janae Marks
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Zoe Washington isn’t sure what to write. What does a girl say to the father she’s never met, hadn’t heard from until his letter arrived on her 12th birthday, and who’s been in prison for a terrible crime? A crime he says he never committed. Could Marcus really be innocent? Zoe is determined to uncover the truth. Even if it means hiding his letters and her investigation from the rest of her family. Everyone else thinks Zoe’s worrying about doing a good job at her bakery internship.
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Don't judge based on rumors
- By Nigeria Parker on 05-23-20
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Heart and Soul
- By: Kadir Nelson
- Narrated by: Debbie Allen
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Kadir Nelson, one of this generation's most accomplished, award-winning artists, has created an epic yet intimate introduction to the history of America and African Americans, from colonial days through the civil rights movement. Written in the voice of an "Everywoman," an unnamed narrator whose forebears came to this country on slave ships and who lived to cast her vote for the first African American president, Heart and Soul touches on some of the great transformative events and small victories of that history.
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uplifting history lesson of black Americans.
- By jean h. on 12-05-14
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Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History
- By: Vashti Harrison
- Narrated by: Robin Miles, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 1 hr and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Featuring 40 trailblazing black women in American history, Little Leaders educates and inspires as it relates true stories of breaking boundaries and achieving beyond expectations. Among these biographies, listeners will find heroes, role models, and everyday women who did extraordinary things - bold women whose actions and beliefs contributed to making the world better for generations of girls and women to come.
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Little Leaders
- By Annie P. on 10-16-18
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Monday's Not Coming
- By: Tiffany D. Jackson
- Narrated by: Imani Parks
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Monday Charles is missing, and only Claudia seems to notice. Claudia and Monday have always been inseparable - more sisters than friends. So when Monday doesn’t turn up for the first day of school, Claudia’s worried. When she doesn’t show for the second day, or second week, Claudia knows that something is wrong. As Claudia digs deeper into her friend’s disappearance, she discovers that no one seems to remember the last time they saw Monday. How can a teenage girl just vanish without anyone noticing that she’s gone?
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Suspenseful with twists!
- By Teresa on 12-18-18
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Say Her Name
- By: Zetta Elliott
- Narrated by: Channie Waites
- Length: 1 hr and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Inspired by the #SayHerName campaign launched by the African American Policy Forum, these poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists insisting that Black Lives Matter. Elliott engages poets from the past two centuries to create a chorus of voices celebrating the creativity, resilience, and courage of Black women and girls.
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Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library
- By: Carole Boston Weatherford
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Amid the scholars, poets, authors, and artists of the Harlem Renaissance stood an Afro-Puerto Rican named Arturo Schomburg. This law clerk's life's passion was to collect books, letters, music, and art from Africa and the African diaspora and to bring to light the achievements of people of African descent throughout the ages. When Schomburg's collection became so big that it began to overflow his house, he turned to the New York Public Library, where he created and curated a collection that was the cornerstone of a new Negro Division.
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I learned something new.
- By Amazon Customer on 11-28-20
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Sit-In
- How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down
- By: Andrea Davis Pinkney
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The recipient of a Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor, Andrea Davis Pinkney is the popular author of numerous picture books and young adult novels. Sit-In recounts the historic events of 1960, when four black college students attempted to integrate a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
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Slay
- By: Brittney Morris
- Narrated by: Kiersey Clemons, Michael Boatman, Alexandra Grey, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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By day, 17-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game Slay. When a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the Slay world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and Slay is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game.
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Totally Engrossing!!
- By MizzSkully on 01-20-20
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The Hate U Give
- By: Angie Thomas
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name.
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One dimensional characters, lazy story writing
- By Catherine Saenz on 02-21-20
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Voice of Freedom
- Fannie Lou Hamer - Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement
- By: Carole Boston Weatherford
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Despite fierce prejudice and abuse, even being beaten to within an inch of her life, Fannie Lou Hamer was a champion of civil rights from the 1950s until her death in 1977. Integral to the Freedom Summer of 1964, Ms. Hamer gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention that, despite President Johnson's interference, aired on national TV news and spurred the nation to support the Freedom Democrats.
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History not Taught in Schools🌹
- By Annree Douglas on 02-07-19
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We Are Not Yet Equal
- Understanding Our Racial Divide
- By: Carol Anderson, Tonya Bolden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Carol Anderson's White Rage took the world by storm, landing on the New York Times best seller list and best book of the year lists from New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Chicago Review of Books. It launched her as an in-demand commentator on contemporary race issues for national print and television media and garnered her an invitation to speak to the Democratic Congressional Caucus. This compelling young adult adaptation brings her ideas to a new audience.
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Great
- By JD on 07-06-20
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Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
- A Remix of the National Book Award-Winning Stamped from the Beginning
- By: Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi
- Narrated by: Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi - introduction
- Length: 4 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The construct of race has always been used to gain and keep power, to create dynamics that separate and silence. This remarkable reimagining of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future. It takes you on a race journey from then to now, shows you why we feel how we feel, and why the poison of racism lingers. It also proves that while racist ideas have always been easy to fabricate and distribute, they can also be discredited.
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You can't fight what you don't know-Jason Reynolds
- By C. Owens on 06-14-20
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The Skin I'm In
- By: Sharon G. Flake
- Narrated by: Sisi Aisha Johnson
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Maleeka Madison is a dark skinned African-American girl. She feels uncomfortable and wishes she had lighter skin. When her teacher, Miss Saunders, who suffers from a rare skin condition, shows that there is more to people than the color of their skin, Maleeka learns to appreciate and accept who she truly is.
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For the young Black women
- By Romee on 12-04-07
Great Listens from African American Authors
Here are 15 must-listens from today’s most acclaimed and top-selling African American authors.
Robyn Crawford
After more than 30 years of silence, Robyn Crawford is speaking publicly about her lifelong relationship with Whitney Houston.
Getting To The Heart Of The Matter
College student and Audible scholar Ama Hagan confronts a controversial work about Africa and its deep impact on her.
Untold Stories
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Invisible
- The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster
- By: Stephen L. Carter
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Stephen L. Carter delves into his past and retrieves the inspiring story of his grandmother’s life. She was Black and a woman and a prosecutor, a graduate of Smith College and the granddaughter of slaves, as dazzlingly unlikely a combination as one could imagine in New York of the 1930s - and without the strategy she devised, Lucky Luciano, the most powerful Mafia boss in history, would never have been convicted. When special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey selected 20 lawyers to help him clean up the city’s underworld, she was the only member of his team who was not a white male.
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A Moving Biography
- By Jean on 10-31-18
Hear this before Hollywood picks it up
Did you know that Charles Lucky
Luciano was brought down by a black female prosecutor? Yeah, me neither. Boardwalk Empire fans may recall the show briefly portrayed Eunice Hunton Carter, but for most of us, this eye-opening biography reveals an extraordinary woman—whom history nearly overlooked—for the very first time. The daughter of black elites in Harlem, Carter found her passion in the law. She became one of New York’s first female African American lawyers and one of the first prosecutors of color in the US period, but her ambition took her even further when Thomas Dewey tapped her to join a special team on organized crime. It was there, investigating run-of-the-mill street-corner prostitution, that Carter uncovered Luciano’s crime ring—and ultimately sent him to prison. As told by her grandson, Stephen L. Carter (a study in high achievement himself, as a Yale law professor and best-selling author), this vivid and personal reconstruction is brimming with history, urgency, and complexity. It will, I hopefully predict, also make a very fine film.
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Trailblazer
- A Pioneering Journalist's Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America
- By: Dorothy Butler Gilliam
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Dorothy Butler Gilliam, whose 50-year-career as a journalist put her in the forefront of the fight for social justice, offers a comprehensive view of racial relations and the media in the US.
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Struggled to finish
- By SL41639 on 04-06-20
One woman's lifelong mission to elevate journalists of color
As a media-obsessed woman of color whose first job in journalism was at a small local newspaper, I was immediately drawn to the story of Dorothy Butler Gilliam, the first black female reporter at The Washington Post. Her memoir, Trailblazer, includes a stirring account of her early career during an era that was hostile and downright inhumane to African Americans, doubly so if they were women. Breaking into the “white press” as such in the 1960s was a feat not meant for the faint of heart. And yet Gilliam persisted, eventually working her way up the ranks at The Post and spearheading organizations and educational programs that gave rise to a new, diverse generation of journalists. The author’s journey wasn’t easy, of course, and she describes how some of her life experiences took a toll on her mental and physical health. Her chronicle is gripping, and her words—heard through the voice of the brilliant January LaVoy—are inspirational. —Valerie, Audible Editor
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Be Free or Die
- The Amazing Story of Robert Smalls' Escape from Slavery to Union Hero
- By: Cate Lineberry
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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It was a mild May morning in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1862, the second year of the Civil War, when a 23-year-old slave named Robert Smalls did the unthinkable and boldly seized a Confederate steamer. With his wife and two young children hidden on board, Smalls and a small crew ran a gauntlet of heavily armed fortifications in Charleston Harbor and delivered the valuable vessel and the massive guns it carried to nearby Union forces.
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Great Book about a Great man
- By Evan on 02-19-18
A little-known Black hero of the American Civil War and beyond
What if I told you that, during the Civil War and beyond, there was once a man so famous, such a national hero, that photographers in Boston and Philadelphia once sold his photographs next to ones of the White House? That man was Robert Smalls, a Black man, a man that most have never heard of, and a man who deserves to have his story told. Born into slavery in South Carolina, Smalls eventually made his way to Charleston where he toiled on a Confederate military vessel named the USS Planter. It would be the very same ship that he would commandeer one early morning in May of 1862 and deliver to Union forces blockading the city, thus securing his freedom along with his families. While that may have been what garnered him his initial fame, his time serving as one of the first Black men in the Union army, along with the political prowess he displayed in the U.S. House of Representatives later in life would solidify him as an American legend. Now, someone (looks at Ava DuVernay) PLEASE make a movie about this man, the world needs it.
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Barracoon
- The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile.
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A "must hear"
- By D. Welch on 05-09-18
An unexpected voice from the past
The 2018 release of this never-before-published work from Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God — one of my all-time favorite books — came more than 50 years after her death but garnered the sort of excitement many contemporary authors would love to have. The story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade, in his own words and own vernacular, given during interviews with Hurston in the early 1900s, felt like a surprise gift. Cudjo Lewis’s sweeping recollections from before his capture in a raid in Africa to his time as a slave and then as a free man, building a family and living under Jim Crow, affords us a compelling and unique look at an American history we thought we knew so well and that remains frustratingly relevant today.