Four Hundred Souls
A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
By Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain
Narrated by: Various
Length: 14 hours 1 minutes
Four Hundred Souls
“An absolutely stunning history of African America for people who do not normally read history. Compiled of short stories, essays, and poems, it is perfect for someone who is intimidated by lists of names and dates. Each individual voice stands on its own but together they truly make a 'choir' that flows together beautifully. This is a one-of-a-kind history that is essential reading for everyone.”
Tia, Quail Ridge Books
Vanguard
How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All
By Martha S. Jones
Narrated by: Mela Lee
Length: 10 hours 42 minutes
The epic history of African American women's pursuit of political power -- and how it transformed America.
In the standard story, the suffrage crusade began in Seneca Falls in 1848 and ended with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. But this overwhelmingly white women's movement did not win the vote for most black women.... Read more »
Ida B. the Queen
By Michelle Duster
Narrated by: Michelle Duster
Length: 3 hours 43 minutes
Journalist. Suffragist. Antilynching crusader. In 1862, Ida B. Wells was born enslaved in Holly Springs, Mississippi. In 2020, she won a Pulitzer Prize.
Ida B. Wells committed herself to the needs of those who did not have power. In the eyes of the FBI, this made her a “dangerous negro agitator.” In the annals of history, it makes her an icon.
... Read more »
Wandering in Strange Lands
A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots
By Morgan Jerkins
Narrated by: Morgan Jerkins
Length: 8 hours 3 minutes
Wandering in Strange Lands
“In Wandering in Strange Lands, Morgan Jerkins brings us along on her journey to learn about her ancestors and herself. This fascinating ethnography leads Jerkins down paths she anticipated and, perhaps most interestingly, down unexpected ones. As she learns more about where and whom she came from, she confronts her image of herself and grapples with some of the truths she finds. Jerkens’s journey takes us first to the Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia, home of the Gullah Geechee people, and then to Louisiana and its Creole people. In both places, she learns much about her mother’s and father’s families. From there, we travel to Oklahoma where Jerkins explores connections between Native Americans and African Americans, searching for information about the claims in her family of Native American ancestry. And finally, we land in Los Angeles, where Jerkins’s research culminates in a thoughtful and insightful examination of what it means to be Black in the United States. The history, the people, the insight, and the implications of the information in this book make it not only incredibly interesting, but also a significant contribution to our understanding of cultures and connections in the United States.”
Nancy, Raven Book Store
Just as I Am
A Memoir
By Cicely Tyson
Narrated by: Cicely Tyson, Viola Davis & Robin Miles
Length: 16 hours 8 minutes
“In her long and extraordinary career, Cicely Tyson has not only exceeded as an actor, she has shaped the course of history.” –President Barack Obama, 2016 Presidential Medal of Honor ceremony
"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... Read more »
The Awakening of Malcolm X
A Novel
By Ilyasah Shabazz & Tiffany D. Jackson
Narrated by: Landon Woodson
Length: 7 hours 54 minutes
The Awakening of Malcolm X
“Although this was written for young readers, I found it to be an engaging and informative look at the life and incarceration that helped mold Malcolm X into the leaders that he was. The narrating was wonderfully done, and I would recommend this for readers of all ages.”
Mary, Skylark Bookshop
Black Radical
The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter
By Kerri K. Greenidge
Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
Length: 15 hours 43 minutes
William Monroe Trotter (1872– 1934), although still virtually unknown to the wider public, was an unlikely American hero. With the stylistic verve of a newspaperman and the unwavering fearlessness of an emancipator, he galvanized black working-class citizens to wield their political power despite the violent racism of post-Reconstruction... Read more »
A Promised Land
By Barack Obama
Narrated by: Barack Obama
Length: 29 hours 9 minutes
A Promised Land
“No one really needs my blurb to help sell this book, but I wanted to give it anyway, especially for the audiobook, narrated by Barack Obama himself. If you want to know his incredible knowledge and wisdom that guided him through major decisions, and also hear him drop a few F-bombs, you need to listen to this fantastically written book. ”
We're Better Than This
My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy
By Elijah Cummings & James Dale
Narrated by: Nancy Pelosi, Laurence Fishburne & Maya Rockeymoore Cummings
Length: 10 hours 34 minutes
The audiobook contains beautiful memories of Representative Elijah Cummings narrated by Laurence Fishburne and Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, with a foreword written and read by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Included are the eulogies from his funeral delivered by Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,... Read more »
Our Time Is Now
Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America
By Stacey Abrams
Narrated by: Stacey Abrams
Length: 9 hours 20 minutes
"This is a narrative that describes the urgency that compels me and millions more to push for a different American story than the one being told today. It's a story that is one part danger, one part action, and all true. It's a story about how and why we fight for our democracy and win."
This program is read by the author
Celebrated national... Read more »
Wilmington's Lie
The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy
By David Zucchino
Narrated by: Victor Bevine
Length: 11 hours 26 minutes
From Pulitzer Prize winner David Zucchino comes a searing account of the Wilmington riot and coup of 1898, an extraordinary event unknown to most Americans By the 1890s, Wilmington was North Carolinas largest city and a shining example of a mixed-race community. It was a bustling port city with a burgeoning African American middle class and a... Read more »
A Shot in the Moonlight
How a Freed Slave and a Confederate Soldier Fought for Justice in the Jim Crow South
By Ben Montgomery
Narrated by: Zeno Robinson & Ben Montgomery
Length: 7 hours 24 minutes
The sensational true story of George Dinning, a freed slave, who in 1899 joined forces with a Confederate war hero in search of justice in the Jim Crow south. “Taut and tense. Inspiring and terrifying in its timelessness.”(Colson Whitehead, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Underground Railroad )
After moonrise on the cold night of January... Read more »
The Warmth of Other Suns
The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
By Isabel Wilkerson
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 22 hours 40 minutes
The Warmth of Other Suns
“I'm sorry I hadn't gotten to this sooner. Wilkerson pulls together so much of what I already knew about the US but not necessarily why... a great audiobook, too.”
Jamie, Flyleaf Books
Go Ahead in the Rain
Notes to A Tribe Called Quest
By Hanif Abdurraqib
Narrated by: Ron Butler
Length: 6 hours 17 minutes
Go Ahead in the Rain
“This monument to A Tribe Called Quest is constructed with the perfect combination of history, memoir, and sentiment. Go Ahead in the Rain is an accurate, honest documentation of the band, their music, and the time. Abdurraqib describes one particular lyrical style as ‘the words bleeding into each other until the language itself becomes an instrument.’ These words could also be said of his book. Brilliantly entertaining, informative, and self-reflective. This is essential reading.”
Mary Goree, Green Apple Books
Black Futures
By Kimberly Drew & Jenna Wortham
Narrated by: Kimberly Drew, Kevin R. Free, Dominic Hoffman, Robin Miles, Adenrele Ojo, Bahni Turpin & Jenna Wortham
Length: 11 hours 10 minutes
An archive of collective memory and exuberant testimony
A luminous map to navigate an opaque and disorienting present
An infinite geography of possible futures
What does it mean to be Black and alive right now?
Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham have brought together this collection of work—essays, memes, dialogues, recipes, tweets, poetry, and... Read more »