Black Authors

Smoketown

By: Mark Whitaker

Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi

Length: 13 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

The other great Renaissance of black culture, influence, and glamour burst forth joyfully in what may seem an unlikely place—Pittsburgh, PA—from the 1920s through the 1950s.Today black Pittsburgh is known as the setting for August Wilson’s famed plays about noble but doomed working-class strivers. But this community once had an impact on... Read more

No Justice

By: Robbie Tolan & Lawrence Ross

Narrated by: Robbie Tolan

Length: 5 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

The harrowing true story of Robbie Tolan, a young black man who was shot in the chest by a white police officer . . . in his own driveway.
NO JUSTICE is the harrowing story of Robbie Tolan, who early on one New Year's Eve morning, found himself being rushed to the hospital. A white police officer had shot him in the chest after mistakenly... Read more

Black Panther

By: Ronald L. Smith

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 5 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

Black Panther. Ruler of Wakanda. Avenger.
This is his destiny. But right now, he's simply T'Challa-the young prince.

Life is comfortable for twelve-year-old T'Challa in his home of Wakanda, an isolated, technologically advanced African nation. When he's not learning how to rule a kingdom from his father-the reigning Black Panther-or testing out... Read more

A Child's Introduction to African American History

By: Jabari Asim

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 2 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

A comprehensive, entertaining look at heroes, heroines, and critical moments from African American history -- from the slave trade to the Black Lives Matter movement -- by award-winning author Jabari Asim.

Jabari Asim goes beyond what's taught in the classroom to reveal a fact-filled history of African American history through politics,... Read more

Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History

By: Vashti Harrison

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 1 hour 38 minutes

Abridged: No

This beautifully illustrated board book edition of instant bestseller Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History showcases women who changed the world and is the perfect goodnight book to inspire big dreams.

Featuring 18 trailblazing black women in American history, Dream Big, Little One is the irresistible board book adaptation of Little... Read more

Becoming Kareem

By: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Raymond Obstfeld

Narrated by: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Length: 5 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

The first memoir for young readers by sports legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

At one time, Lew Alcindor was just another kid from New York City with all the usual problems: He struggled with fitting in, with pleasing a strict father, and with overcoming shyness that made him feel socially awkward. But with a talent for basketball, and an unmatched... Read more

Nobody Knows My Name

By: James Baldwin

Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly

Length: 5 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

James Baldwin’s Nobody Knows My Name records the last months of this famed American writer’s ten-year self-exile in Europe, his return to America and to Harlem, and his first trip south at the time of the school integration battles. It contains Baldwin’s controversial and intimate profiles of Norman Mailer, Richard Wright, and Ingmar Bergman.... Read more

Dear Martin

By: Nic Stone

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 4 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WILLIAM C. MORRIS AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME
 
After a traffic stop turns violent at the hands of the police, a young Black teen grapples with racism—and what it means for his future. Critically acclaimed author Nic Stone boldly tackles America’s troubled history with race... Read more

The Well

By: Mildred D. Taylor

Narrated by: Andre Montgomery

Length: 2 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Another powerful story in the Logan Family Saga and companion to Mildred D. Taylor's Newbery Award-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

For David Logan, a time of distress means taking the higher road. 

During a drought, the Logan family shares their well water with their neighbors, black and white alike. But David’s brother Hammer finds it hard... Read more

Trapped Between the Lash and the Gun

By: Arvella Whitmore

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 3 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

Jordan is going to join a gang. But just as he's about to start his future with the Cobras, his past calls him back. Way back--to the nineteenth-century, where he meets his ancestors and gets a bitter taste of what life was like for them as slaves. Jordan must live with the constant threat of the whip's lash. His journey back in time will strike... Read more

The Stars Beneath Our Feet

By: David Barclay Moore

Narrated by: Nile Bullock & David Barclay Moore

Length: 6 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

"The right story at the right time. . . . It’s not just a narrative; it’s an experience. It’s the novel we’ve been waiting for." —The New York Times

A boy tries to steer a safe path through the projects in Harlem in the wake of his brother’s death in this outstanding debut novel that celebrates community and creativity. Winner of the... Read more

Defining Moments in Black History

By: Dick Gregory

Narrated by: James Shippy

Length: 7 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

With his trademark acerbic wit, incisive humor, and infectious paranoia, one of our foremost comedians and most politically engaged civil rights activists looks back at 100 key events from the complicated history of black America.A friend of luminaries including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Medgar Evers, and the forebear of today’s popular... Read more

Playing Hurt

By: John Saunders & John U. Bacon

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 8 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

For the first time ever, the popular late host of ESPN's The Sports Reporters and ABC's college football openly discusses a lifelong battle with depression.

During his three decades on ESPN and ABC, John Saunders became one of the nation's most respected and beloved sportscasters. In this moving, jarring, and ultimately inspiring memoir,... Read more

Miles Morales

By: Jason Reynolds

Narrated by: Guy Lockard

Length: 6 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

"Everyone gets mad at hustlers, especially if you're on the victim side of the hustle. And Miles knew hustling was in his veins."

Miles Morales is just your average teenager. Dinner every Sunday with his parents, chilling out playing old-school video games with his best friend, Ganke, crushing on brainy, beautiful poet Alicia. He's even got a... Read more

Policing the Black Man

By: Angela J. Davis

Narrated by: Robin Miles & Kevin Kenerly

Length: 10 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

A comprehensive analysis of the key issues of the Black Lives Matter movement, this thought-provoking and compelling anthology features essays by some of the nation’s most influential and respected criminal justice experts and legal scholars.Contributing authors include Bryan Stevenson, director of the Equal Justice Initiative, NYU Law... Read more

Queen of Bebop

By: Elaine M. Hayes

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

Length: 13 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

Queen of Bebop brilliantly chronicles the life of jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, one of the most influential and innovative musicians of the twentieth century and a pioneer of women’s and civil rights.Sarah Vaughan, a pivotal figure in the formation of bebop, influenced a broad array of singers who followed in her wake, yet the breadth and depth of... Read more

A House Divided

By: Donna Hill

Narrated by: Karen Chilton

Length: 8 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Families always have secrets. And secrets have the power to heal-or hurt. Now beloved author Donna Hill's enthralling novel explores the wrongs we do for the right reasons, and the ways we struggle to reconcile the truth. Journalist Zoie Crawford had to leave New Orleans to finally make her own life. Her grandmother, Claudia, inspired her to... Read more

Surpassing Certainty

By: Janet Mock

Narrated by: Janet Mock

Length: 7 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

“A defining chronicle of strength and spirit” (Kirkus Reviews), Surpassing Certainty is a portrait of a young woman searching for her purpose and place in the world—without a road map to guide her. This memoir “should be required reading for your 20s” (Cosmopolitan).

A few months before her twentieth birthday, Janet Mock is adjusting to her days... Read more

Black Detroit

By: Herb Boyd

Narrated by: James Shippy

Length: 10 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

The author of Baldwin’s Harlem looks at the evolving culture, politics, economics, and spiritual life of Detroit—a blend of memoir, love letter, history, and clear-eyed reportage that explores the city’s past, present, and future and its significance to the African American legacy and the nation’s fabric.Herb Boyd moved to Detroit in 1943, as... Read more

Confessions of a Domestic Failure

By: Bunmi Laditan

Narrated by: Tara Sands

Length: 9 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

From the creator of The Honest Toddler comes a fiction debut sure to be a must-read for moms everywhere 

There are good moms and bad moms—and then there are hot-mess moms. Introducing Ashley Keller, career girl turned stay-at-home mom who's trying to navigate the world of Pinterest-perfect, Facebook-fantastic and Instagram-impressive mommies but... Read more

Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom

By: Lynda Blackmon Lowery

Narrated by: Damaras Obi

Length: 1 hour

Abridged: No

A memoir of the Civil Rights Movement from one of its youngest heroes

A Sibert Informational Book Medal Honor Book
Kirkus Best Books of 2015
Booklist Editors' Choice 2015
BCCB Blue Ribbon 2015

As the youngest marcher in the 1965 voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Albama, Lynda Blackmon Lowery proved that young adults can be heroes. Jailed... Read more

No Name in the Street

By: James Baldwin

Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly

Length: 5 hours

Abridged: No

This stunningly personal document and extraordinary history of the turbulent sixties and early seventies displays James Baldwin’s fury and despair more deeply than any of his other works.In vivid detail he remembers the Harlem childhood that shaped his early consciousness, the later events that scored his heart with pain—the murders of Martin... Read more

Locking Up Our Own

By: James Forman, Jr.

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Length: 8 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

Former public defender James Forman, Jr., is a leading critic of mass incarceration and its disproportionate impact on people of color. In Locking Up Our Own, he seeks to understand the war on crime that began in the 1970s and why it was supported by many African American leaders in the nation’s urban centers.Forman shows us that the first... Read more

An Extraordinary Union

By: Alyssa Cole

Narrated by: Karen Chilton

Length: 10 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

As the Civil War rages between the states, a courageous pair of spies plunge fearlessly into a maelstrom of ignorance and danger, combining their unique skills to alter the course of history and break the chains of the past in New York Times bestselling Alyssa Cole’s first installment in The Loyal League ...1861. Elle Burns is a former slave... Read more