-
The Black Church
- This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Categories: History, Americas
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $28.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Author Q&A with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Author of
The Black Church
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Stony the Road
- Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
- By: Henry Louis Gates
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A profound new rendering of the struggle by African Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counterrevolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring racist stain on the American mind.
-
-
Valuable examination of Jim Crow and Rise of White Supremacy in America
- By WJ Brown, Audible Customer on 05-14-19
-
Four Hundred Souls
- A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
- By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, Keisha N. Blain - editor
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present - edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.
-
-
Tears, trauma yet hope.
- By d.design on 02-04-21
By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, and others
-
Just as I Am
- A Memoir
- By: Cicely Tyson, Michelle Burford
- Narrated by: Cicely Tyson, Viola Davis, Robin Miles
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just as I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. Here, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams.
-
-
Disappointed with the background noise
- By Marlise Alexandre on 01-29-21
By: Cicely Tyson, and others
-
God of the Oppressed
- By: James H. Cone
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his reflections on God, Jesus, suffering, and liberation, James H. Cone relates the gospel message to the experience of the Black community. But a wider theme of the book is the role that social and historical context plays in framing the questions we address to God as well as the mode of the answers provided.
-
-
Unbearable whistling sound!
- By Gabriel on 10-05-20
By: James H. Cone
-
Long Time Coming
- Reckoning with Race in America
- By: Michael Eric Dyson
- Narrated by: Michael Eric Dyson
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis when a White cop suffocated him. The video of that night’s events went viral, sparking the largest protests in the nation’s history and the sort of social unrest we have not seen since the '60s. While Floyd’s death was certainly the catalyst (heightened by the fact that it occurred during a pandemic whose victims were disproportionately of color), it was in truth the fuse that lit an ever-filling powder keg.
-
-
Great read!
- By John Perez on 12-05-20
-
The Sum of Us
- What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
- By: Heather McGhee
- Narrated by: Heather McGhee
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy - and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for White people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?
-
-
Good book but Recording tech is poor. Glitches
- By Jeannepup on 02-25-21
By: Heather McGhee
-
Stony the Road
- Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
- By: Henry Louis Gates
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A profound new rendering of the struggle by African Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counterrevolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring racist stain on the American mind.
-
-
Valuable examination of Jim Crow and Rise of White Supremacy in America
- By WJ Brown, Audible Customer on 05-14-19
-
Four Hundred Souls
- A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
- By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, Keisha N. Blain - editor
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present - edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.
-
-
Tears, trauma yet hope.
- By d.design on 02-04-21
By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, and others
-
Just as I Am
- A Memoir
- By: Cicely Tyson, Michelle Burford
- Narrated by: Cicely Tyson, Viola Davis, Robin Miles
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just as I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. Here, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams.
-
-
Disappointed with the background noise
- By Marlise Alexandre on 01-29-21
By: Cicely Tyson, and others
-
God of the Oppressed
- By: James H. Cone
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his reflections on God, Jesus, suffering, and liberation, James H. Cone relates the gospel message to the experience of the Black community. But a wider theme of the book is the role that social and historical context plays in framing the questions we address to God as well as the mode of the answers provided.
-
-
Unbearable whistling sound!
- By Gabriel on 10-05-20
By: James H. Cone
-
Long Time Coming
- Reckoning with Race in America
- By: Michael Eric Dyson
- Narrated by: Michael Eric Dyson
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis when a White cop suffocated him. The video of that night’s events went viral, sparking the largest protests in the nation’s history and the sort of social unrest we have not seen since the '60s. While Floyd’s death was certainly the catalyst (heightened by the fact that it occurred during a pandemic whose victims were disproportionately of color), it was in truth the fuse that lit an ever-filling powder keg.
-
-
Great read!
- By John Perez on 12-05-20
-
The Sum of Us
- What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
- By: Heather McGhee
- Narrated by: Heather McGhee
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Heather McGhee’s specialty is the American economy - and the mystery of why it so often fails the American public. From the financial crisis to rising student debt to collapsing public infrastructure, she found a common root problem: racism. But not just in the most obvious indignities for people of color. Racism has costs for White people, too. It is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?
-
-
Good book but Recording tech is poor. Glitches
- By Jeannepup on 02-25-21
By: Heather McGhee
-
This Is the Fire
- What I Say to My Friends About Racism
- By: Don Lemon
- Narrated by: Don Lemon
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The host of CNN Tonight with Don Lemon is more popular than ever. As America’s only Black prime-time anchor, Lemon and his daily monologues on racism and antiracism, on the failures of the Trump administration and of so many of our leaders, and on America’s systemic flaws speak for his millions of fans. Now, in an urgent, deeply personal, riveting plea, he tells us all how deep our problems lie, and what we can do to begin to fix them.
-
-
A Must Read!!!
- By Ms. Angie on 03-19-21
By: Don Lemon
-
Reading While Black
- African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope
- By: Esau McCaulley
- Narrated by: Esau McCaulley
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time in which some within the African American community are questioning the place of the Christian faith in the struggle for justice, New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times.
-
-
Awesome!
- By Ashley Allen on 10-19-20
By: Esau McCaulley
-
Across That Bridge
- A Vision for Change and the Future of America
- By: John Robert Lewis
- Narrated by: Keith David
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Across That Bridge, Congressman John Lewis draws from his experience as a prominent leader of the civil rights movement to offer timeless wisdom, poignant recollections, and powerful principles for anyone interested in challenging injustices and inspiring real change toward a freer, more peaceful society. The civil rights movement gave rise to the protest culture we know today, and the experiences of leaders like Congressman Lewis, a close confidant to Martin Luther King, Jr., have never been more relevant.
-
-
Lessons From A True Hero
- By Jeremy on 04-19-19
-
Jesus and the Disinherited
- By: Howard Thurman
- Narrated by: Chris Barton
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this classic theological treatise, the acclaimed theologian and religious leader Howard Thurman (1900-1981) demonstrates how the gospel may be read as a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. Jesus is a partner in the pain of the oppressed and the example of his life offers a solution to ending the descent into moral nihilism. Hatred does not empower - it decays. Only through self-love and love of one another can God's justice prevail.
-
-
So current
- By Cheryl hardet-missinne on 09-25-20
By: Howard Thurman
-
Lead from the Outside
- How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change
- By: Stacey Abrams
- Narrated by: Stacey Abrams
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
National leader Stacey Abrams has written the guide to harnessing the strengths of being an outsider and succeeding anyway. Leadership is hard. Convincing others - and yourself - that you are capable of taking charge and achieving more requires insight and courage. Lead from the Outside is the handbook for outsiders, written with an eye toward the challenges that hinder women, people of color, the working class, members of the LGBTQ community, and millennials ready to make change.
-
-
Uplifting
- By Jean on 02-03-19
By: Stacey Abrams
-
What Truth Sounds Like
- Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America
- By: Michael Eric Dyson
- Narrated by: Michael Eric Dyson
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook exists at the tense intersection of the conflict between politics and prophecy - of whether we embrace political resolution or moral redemption to fix our fractured racial landscape.
-
-
Riffing on a meeting with RFK and James Baldwin
- By Adam Shields on 06-08-18
-
The Dead Are Arising
- The Life of Malcolm X
- By: Les Payne, Tamara Payne
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An epic biography of Malcolm X finally emerges, drawing on hundreds of hours of the author's interviews, rewriting much of the known narrative.
-
-
Much more depth than the Haley book.
- By CapitalHeel on 11-03-20
By: Les Payne, and others
-
The Devil You Know
- A Black Power Manifesto
- By: Charles M. Blow
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From journalist and New York Times best-selling author Charles Blow comes a powerful manifesto and call to action for Black Americans to amass political power and fight white supremacy.
-
-
A radical plan for Black liberation
- By Elizabeth on 01-27-21
By: Charles M. Blow
-
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- As Told to Alex Haley
- By: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
- Narrated by: Laurence Fishburne
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Experience a bold take on this classic autobiography as it’s performed by Oscar-nominated Laurence Fishburne. In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
-
-
Audible Masterpiece
- By Phoenician on 09-10-20
By: Malcolm X, and others
-
Stokely: A Life
- By: Peniel E. Joseph
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stokely Carmichael, the charismatic and controversial Black activist, stepped onto the pages of history when he called for "Black Power" during a speech one humid Mississippi night in 1966. Carmichael’s life changed that day, and so did America’s struggle for civil rights. "Black Power" became the slogan of an era, provoking a national reckoning on race and democracy. In Stokely, preeminent civil rights scholar Peniel E. Joseph presents a groundbreaking biography of Carmichael.
-
-
Black Power icon
- By Adam Shields on 07-20-20
By: Peniel E. Joseph
-
A Promised Land
- By: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 29 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency - a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
-
-
Color me grateful.
- By Angela on 11-19-20
By: Barack Obama
-
Shaking the Gates of Hell
- A Search for Family and Truth in the Wake of the Civil Rights Revolution
- By: John Archibald
- Narrated by: Cameron Scoggins
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Archibald had seen his father, the Rev. Robert L. Archibald, Jr., the son and grandson of Methodist preachers, as a moral authority, a moderate and a moderating force during the racial turbulence of the '60s, a loving and dependable parent, a forgiving and attentive minister, a man many Alabamians came to see as a saint. But was that enough?
-
-
Beautiful.
- By Dawn Todhunter on 03-12-21
By: John Archibald
Publisher's Summary
From the New York Times best-selling author of Stony the Road and one of our most important voices on the African-American experience, a powerful new history of the Black church in America as the Black community's abiding rock and its fortress.
The companion book to the upcoming PBS series.
For the young Henry Louis Gates, Jr., growing up in a small, segregated West Virginia town, the church was his family and his community's true center of gravity. Within those walls, voices were lifted up in song to call forth the best in each other, and to comfort each other when times were at their worst. In this book, his tender and magisterial reckoning with the meaning of the Black church in American history, Gates takes us from his own experience onto a journey across more than 400 years and spanning the entire country. At road's end, we emerge with a new understanding of the centrality of the Black church to the American story - as a cultural and political force, as the center of resistance to slavery and White supremacy, as an unparalleled incubator of talent, and as a crucible for working through the community's most important issues, down to today.
In a country that has historically afforded its citizens from the African diaspora tragically few safe spaces, the Black church has always been more than a sanctuary; it's been a place to nourish the deepest human needs and dreams of the African-American community. This fact was never lost on white supremacists: From the earliest days of slavery, when enslaved people were allowed to worship at all, their meeting houses were subject to surveillance, and often destruction. So it continued, long after slavery's formal eradication; church burnings and church bombings by the Ku Klux Klan and others have always been a hallmark of the violent effort to suppress the struggle for equality for the African-American community. The past often isn't even past - Dylann Roof committed his slaughter in Charleston's Emanuel AME Church 193 years after the church was first burned down by whites following a thwarted slave rebellion.
But as Gates brilliantly shows, the Black church has never been only one thing. Its story lies at the vital center of the civil rights movement, and produced many of its leaders, from the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., on, but at the same time there have always been churches and sects that eschewed a more activist stance, even eschewed worldly political engagement altogether. That tension can be felt all the way to the Black Lives Matter movement and the work of today. Still and all, as a source of strength and a force for change, the Black church is at the center of the action at every stage of the American story, as this enthralling history makes vividly clear.
*This audiobook includes a PDF of the Appendix and Acknowledgments from the book.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Critic Reviews
"[An] invaluable illumination of the many ways the Black church has been an ongoing epicenter of inspiration and action.” (Booklist, starred review)
“Through meticulous research and interviews...Gates paints a compelling portrait of the church as a source of ‘unfathomable resiliency’ for Black ancestors as well as the birthplace of so many distinctly African-American aesthetic forms.... Powerful, poignant, and ultimately celebratory. Let the church say, ‘Amen!’" (Kirkus, starred review)
“A brisk and insightful look at how the Black church has succored generations of African Americans against white supremacy.... Punctuated by trenchant observations from Black historians and theologians, Gates’s crisp account places religious life at the center of the African-American experience.” (Publishers Weekly)
“Henry Louis Gates, Jr., has once again delved deep into the doings and sufferings of Black people in the USA! This time he gives us a rich story and riveting song of the profound forms of spirituality and musicality that sustained Black sanity and dignity. Although Gates rightly highlights the centrality of the ambiguous legacy of the Black Church, he also explores the crucial realities of Islam and other non-Christian religious practices. And the last powerful and playful chapter on his personal dance with an elusive Holy Ghost lays bare his own signifying genius grounded in a genuine love of Black people and culture!” (Cornel West)
More from the same
What listeners say about The Black Church
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carol Hamilton
- 02-16-21
A must read for all Christians
Enlightening hard to listen to. I wanted to take notes and look things up as it went along. Reader’s voice was pleasant. I also wanted some of the spirituals and prayers
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DHJ
- 04-01-21
Beautifully written and narrated
In anticipation of the coming series on the black church, I listened to the book on Audible. The depth and breadth of the research, so well woven together with interesting personal stories and recollections of the author and others, was stunning. The narrator’s voice was superb and while I had no particular expectations of this rendering beforehand, I was very reluctant when the Epilogue ended. I must say this is one of the best books I have read/heard in a very long time. I look forward to watching the documentary series.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Martha
- 03-20-21
Must know history
Info not presented logically, average not great, narrator. But the information? Gotta have it, Baby!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- customer
- 03-18-21
wonderful book
the book was interesting and gave a concise history of the Black Church in the U.S.