The Black Experience

The Queen of Sugar Hill

A Novel of Hattie McDaniel

By: ReShonda Tate
Narrated by: Lynnette R. Freeman
Length: 15 hours 27 minutes

As seen on The TODAY Show!Bestselling author ReShonda Tate presents a fascinating fictional portrait of Hattie McDaniel, one of Hollywood’s most prolific but woefully underappreciated stars—and the first Black person ever to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in the critically acclaimed classic film Gone With the Wind.It was supposed to be the... Read more

Fearless and Free

A Memoir

By: Josephine Baker
Narrated by: Ijeoma Oluo, Jade Wheeler & Quentin Bruno
Length: 8 hours 42 minutes

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: The TODAY Show, Vanity Fair, Financial Times, W Magazine, Oprah Daily, LibraryReads

Praised as “funny and witty” by Kwame Alexander on the TODAY show, now published in the US for the first time, Fearless and Free is the memoir of the “trailblazing” (People), rule-breaking, one-of-a-kind Josephine Baker, the... Read more

You Can't Kill a Man Because of the Books He Reads

Angelo Herndon's Fight for Free Speech

By: Brad Snyder
Narrated by: Christopher Douyard
Length: 7 hours 13 minutes

The story of a young, Black Communist Party organizer wrongly convicted of attempting to incite insurrection and the landmark case that made him a civil rights hero.



Decades before the impeachment of an American president for a similar offense, Angelo Herndon was charged under Georgia law with "attempting to incite insurrection"—a crime... Read more

How Long 'til Black Future Month?

Stories

By: N. K. Jemisin
Narrated by: Shayna Small, Gail Nelson-Holgate, Robin Eller, Ron Butler, Kevin Stillwell, Je Nie Fleming & Jeanette Illidge
Length: 14 hours 10 minutes

Three-time Hugo Award winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption that sharply examine modern society in her first collection of short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories.

"Marvelous and wide-ranging." -- Los Angeles... Read more

Parable of the Sower

Earthseed: Book #1

By: Octavia E. Butler
Narrated by: Lynne Thigpen
Length: 12 hours 2 minutes

“Prescient, brilliant, challenging; a book everyone should read, probably multiple times in their lives as N.K. Jemisin suggests. Read more

The Black Utopians

Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America

By: Aaron Robertson
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 10 hours 11 minutes

This program is read by by four-time Audie Award winner, Odyssey Award winner, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize Award–winning audiobook narrator, Dion Graham.

One of Literary Hub's most anticipated books of 2024

"Narrator Dion Graham's smooth baritone carries gravitas and emotion."—AudioFile Magazine (Earphones Award Winner)

A lyrical meditation on... Read more

Master Slave Husband Wife

An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

By: Ilyon Woo
Narrated by: Janina Edwards & Leon Nixon
Length: 12 hours 54 minutes

“Ellen and William Craft, married slaves from Georgia, pulled off one of the most daring escapes from slavery in recorded history. Ellen, who was able to pass for white because she had a white father, dressed as a very ill young man. The couple convinced people that they were master and slave bound for the North to seek medical care. After four... Read more

Last Seen

The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People to Find Their Lost Families

By: Judith Giesberg
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
Length: 10 hours 56 minutes

Drawing from an archive of nearly five thousand letters and advertisements, the riveting, dramatic story of formerly enslaved people who spent years searching for family members stolen away during slavery.

Of all the many horrors of slavery, the cruelest was the separation of families in slave auctions. Spouses and siblings were sold away from... Read more

Martin Luther King, Jr., on Leadership

Inspiration and Wisdom for Challenging Times

By: Donald T. Phillips
Narrated by: Je Nie Fleming
Length: 10 hours 42 minutes

Read the detailed and absorbing chronicle of Martin Luther King's leadership during the most tumultuous period in America's recent past—featuring a foreword by Dr. Bernice King.
 
Hailed as America’s greatest civil rights advocate, Martin Luther King, Jr., inspired the people of the United States to demand equality, regardless of the color of... Read more

Medgar and Myrlie

Medgar Evers and the Love Story that Awakened America

By: Joy-Ann Reid
Narrated by: Joy-Ann Reid
Length: 10 hours 52 minutes

#1 New York Times BestsellerNAACP Image Award WinnerFrom Joy-Ann Reid, a triumphant work of biography that repositions slain Civil Rights pioneer Medgar Evers at the heart of America's struggle for freedom, and celebrates Myrlie Evers's extraordinary activism after her husband's assassination in the driveway of their Mississippi home.“Medgar... Read more

The Humanity Archive

Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth

By: Jermaine Fowler
Narrated by: Jermaine Fowler
Length: 15 hours 47 minutes

“For such a well-researched, circumspect, chock-full-of-facts history book, this is a thrilling, propulsive read. The eponymous hit podcast’s pace is matched in this page-turner. Anyone with a cursory American history education can pop in at any chapter and let Mr. Fowler fill in the long-neglected, gaping holes. This book has been needed for too... Read more

I Am Nobody's Slave

How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free

By: Lee Hawkins
Narrated by: Lee Hawkins
Length: 14 hours 44 minutes

A 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist and former Wall Street Journal writer exhaustively examines his family’s legacy of post-enslavement trauma and resilience, in this riveting memoir—a soulful, shocking, and spellbinding read that blends the raw power of Natasha Tretheway’s Memorial Drive and the insights of Clint Smith’s How the Word is Passed. I Am... Read more

Half American

The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad

By: Matthew F. Delmont
Narrated by: William DeMeritt
Length: 8 hours 46 minutes

• Winner of the 2023 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Nonfiction
• A New York Times Notable Book
• A Best Book of the Year from TIME, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Washington Independent Review of Books, and more!

The definitive history of World War II from the African American perspective, written by civil rights expert and Dartmouth history professor... Read more

We Were the Fire

Birmingham 1963

By: Shelia P. Moses
Narrated by: Genesis Oliver
Length: 2 hours 57 minutes

The powerful story of an eleven-year-old Black boy determined to stand up for his rights, who's pulled into the action of the 1963 civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama.

Rufus Jackson Jones is from Birmingham, the place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called the most segregated place in the country. A place that in 1963 is full of civil... Read more

The Message

By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Length: 5 hours 20 minutes

“Ta-Nehisi Coates brilliantly narrates his own book of essays. His voice is soothing, but strong and I love the framing of the whole book. The way that he investigates his own internal biases by visiting places foreign to him is a masterclass in how we should all go about experiencing the world. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Read more

This Is the Honey

An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets

By: Kwame Alexander
Narrated by: Mahogany L. Brown & Joel Damany Steingold
Length: 4 hours 11 minutes

A breathtaking poetry collection on hope, heart, and heritage from the most prominent and promising Black poets and writers of our time, edited by Why Fathers Cry at Night author and #1 New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander. In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology, bestselling author and poet Kwame Alexander curates a... Read more

I Have A Dream Speech

By: Martin Luther King
Narrated by: Martin Luther King
Length: 16 minutes

If you wish to hear Martin Luther King Jr himself deliver his immortalized "I Have a Dream" speech in it's entirety then please go ahead and enable this skill for Alexa to play back to you anytime you feel the need to be inspired. Perhaps you were there during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963?... or maybe you want... Read more

The Small and the Mighty

Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement

By: Sharon McMahon
Narrated by: Sharon McMahon
Length: 10 hours 13 minutes

“A thoroughly informative and enjoyable look at 12 Americans who made a difference. Sharon McMahon narrates the book herself, and it’s all the better for her own inflections and emotions. Cannot recommend enough! Read more

Junie: A GMA Book Club Pick

A Novel

By: Erin Crosby Eckstine
Narrated by: Angel Pean
Length: 13 hours 29 minutes

GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • A young girl must face a life-altering decision after awakening her sister’s ghost, navigating truths about love, friendship, and power as the Civil War looms.

“An enrapturing tale of survival . . . Eckstine has poured a ton of heart into her characters.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“The richly textured... Read more

Kingdom of No Tomorrow

By: Fabienne Josaphat
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 11 hours 32 minutes

From a PEN/Bellwether Prizewinner, a "beautifully convincing slice of history" novel about the Black Panther Party, perfect for fans of The Love Songs of W. E. B. Dubois (Barbara Kingsolver).

Nettie Boileau joins the Black Panthers’ Free Health Clinics in Oakland in 1968 and is soon swept up in an all-consuming love affair with Melvin Mosley, a... Read more