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Audiobooks for Black History Month and Beyond

Talented narrators give voice to America’s past and present in these recommended audiobooks. Their performances enhance the histories, biographies, memoirs (some narrated by the authors themselves), and titles for young listeners, making audio a unique and accessible way to experience these stories.
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THE 1619 PROJECT

THE 1619 PROJECT A New Origin Story

Earphones Award Winner

by Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine, Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman, Jake Silverstein [Eds.] | Read by Nikole Hannah-Jones and a Full Cast

Random House Audio
History

Nikole Hannah-Jones, herself a persuasive narrator, has brought together a remarkable mosaic of voices, stories, and poems that tell the story of America through the lens of slavery. So much inspired writing and outstanding narrating in this audiobook make it difficult to select only a few to single out. The chapters by Bryan Stevenson, Ibram X. Kendi, Jamelle Bouie, and... Read More

THE 1619 PROJECT: BORN ON THE WATER

THE 1619 PROJECT: BORN ON THE WATER

by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Renée Watson | Read by Nikole Hannah-Jones

Listening Library
Children

Poet and narrator Nikole Hannah-Jones recounts the history and consequences of enslavement for Black Americans in this audiobook. With soothing and unobtrusive sound effects, she details the culture and traditions of West Africans before they were enslaved. Her narration is joyful while celebrating the origins of Black Americans and the resilient people they descend from. Her... Read More

28 DAYS

28 DAYS Moments in Black History that Changed the World

Earphones Award Winner

by Charles R. Smith, Jr. | Read by Dion Graham, William Jackson Harper, Zainab Jah, January LaVoy, Robin Miles, Lizan Mitchell, Jonathan Earl Peck, Carter Woodson Redwood

Live Oak Media
Children

This history of black culture performed by a talented ensemble of eight voices is a listening treasure. Cleverly presented in 29 short episodes, the verse and soundscape elucidate a chronological account of events and people who played small and monumental roles in the history of black America—black astronauts, political leaders, business entrepreneurs. Listeners can enjoy the... Read More

AMERICAN WINGS

AMERICAN WINGS Chicago's Pioneering Black Aviators and the Race for Equality in the Sky

by Sherri L. Smith, Elizabeth Wein | Read by Karen Murray

Listening Library
Young Adult

Karen Murray's smooth narration soars as she tells the stories of the pivotal men and women whose actions broke the race barrier for Black pilots during the first half of the twentieth century. While the work is extensively researched, both the authors and Murray emphasize individual stories that make the historical figures relatable. Murray recounts, for example, how Cornelius... Read More

ANTIRACIST BABY

ANTIRACIST BABY

by Ibram X. Kendi | Read by Shayna Small, Guy Lockard

Listening Library
Children

"Antiracist Baby is bred, not born. / Antiracist Baby is raised to make society transform." So begins the picture book written by the author of HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST to help explain racism to his young daughter. Shayna Small's narration takes listeners through nine steps "to make equity a reality." Her tone is authoritative, the strength of her voice made more powerful by the... Read More

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X

Earphones Award Winner

by Malcolm X, Alex Haley | Read by Laurence Fishburne

Audible, Inc.
Biography & Memoir

Laurence Fishburne expertly modulates his tone and suits his cadence to the scenes and dialogue in this audiobook. His voice becomes a tuned instrument emulating the street talk of the ghetto, the lilting patois of a West Indian hustler, and the genteel speech of African leaders. But the most outstanding part of his performance comes when Malcolm X evolves from convict to... Read More

BARRACOON

BARRACOON The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

Earphones Award Winner

by Zora Neale Hurston, Deborah G. Plant [Ed.] | Read by Robin Miles

Harper Audio
History

Zora Neale Hurston’s previously unreleased work offers a rare glimpse of the experiences of the last surviving person to have been taken from Africa, brought to the United States as a slave, and then freed. Capturing the dialect, accent, and intonation of Cudjo Lewis, then living in Alabama, presents a challenging task for narrator Robin Miles, who must deliver one of the... Read More

BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

by Ta-Nehisi Coates | Read by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Random House Audio
Biography & Memoir

A good performer makes you feel like you're privy to something memorable--a great one beckons you into his world and welcomes you as a necessary part of the work's success. Ta-Nehisi Coates's delivery of his own book is so memorable because the material is charged with emotion and a tone of self-disclosure. There's also a highly personal sense of connection between himself and... Read More

BLACK BIRDS IN THE SKY

BLACK BIRDS IN THE SKY The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Earphones Award Winner

by Brandy Colbert | Read by Kristyl Dawn Tift, Brandy Colbert

Harper Audio
Young Adult

Brandy Colbert, award-winning African-American children's novelist, delivers the moving foreword to her first nonfiction work. Kristyl Dawn Tift vividly narrates the truth of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a tragic event often omitted from history books. With all the dramatic tension and horror that years of racism wrought, this contextual account explains connections such as... Read More

THE BLACK BOX

THE BLACK BOX Writing the Race

by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. | Read by Dominic Hoffman

Penguin Audio
History

What makes Dominic Hoffman such a fine narrator is the clarity of his delivery and his vocal agility. He sounds like he is inside Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s, brilliant mind, and he moves adroitly from the author’s knowing perspective to “signifying” in the style of African American folklore. His voice is conversational and his tone thoughtful as he takes the listener from the... Read More

BROWN GIRL DREAMING

BROWN GIRL DREAMING

Earphones Award Winner

by Jacqueline Woodson | Read by Jacqueline Woodson

Penguin Audio
Children

Jacqueline Woodson’s linked poems weave scenes of political change while growing up amid the Civil Rights movement and scenes of personal upheaval upon moving from her grandparents’ peaceful South Carolina home to Brooklyn. Her voice is wistful and dreamy as she savors rich sensory memories like crickets, “who seem to know their song is our lullaby,” and sitting beside her... Read More

CASTE

CASTE The Origins of Our Discontents

Earphones Award Winner

by Isabel Wilkerson | Read by Robin Miles

Random House Audio
Contemporary Culture

Robin Miles’s powerhouse performance and Isabel Wilkerson’s excellent writing are perfectly matched in this stunning examination of the egregious effects of caste systems in India, the United States, and Nazi Germany. The Pulitzer Prize-winning NEW YORK TIMES journalist combines research into the development of caste systems, their societal role, and their connection with... Read More

CIVIL RIGHTS QUEEN

CIVIL RIGHTS QUEEN Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality

Earphones Award Winner

by Tomiko Brown-Nagin | Read by Karen Chilton

Random House Audio
Biography & Memoir

Narrator Karen Chilton channels the energy and passion of Constance Baker Motley, the first Black woman appointed to the federal court. The young Motley was the first in her family to go to college. Later, her law career unfolded seamlessly. Chilton's calm, powerful delivery captures the courageous Motley's defense of James Meredith, the first Black man to enroll in the... Read More

CLAUDETTE COLVIN: TWICE TOWARD JUSTICE

CLAUDETTE COLVIN: TWICE TOWARD JUSTICE

Earphones Award Winner

by Phillip Hoose | Read by Channie Waites

Brilliance Audio
Young Adult

This 2009 National Book Award winner introduces listeners to forgotten Civil Rights heroine Claudette Colvin, who (nine months before Rosa Parks) refused to give up her own Birmingham bus seat. Channie Waites superbly narrates a text that offers both cogent explanations of history, including especially informative sidebars, and first-person accounts of those who witnessed the... Read More

THE COLOR OF LAW

THE COLOR OF LAW A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

Earphones Award Winner

by Richard Rothstein | Read by Adam Grupper

Recorded Books
Contemporary Culture

With confidence and clarity, narrator Adam Grupper describes discriminatory laws governing the actions of the Federal Housing Administration, Department of Education, Department of Veterans Affairs, and other government agencies that have shaped African-Americans' ability to gain wealth, health, education, and voting power, not merely in the past but in the present day. Author... Read More

FOUR HUNDRED SOULS

FOUR HUNDRED SOULS A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

Earphones Award Winner

by Ibram X. Kendi, Keisha N. Blain [Eds.] | Read by JD Jackson, Kevin R. Free, January LaVoy, Robin Miles, Dion Graham, Angela Y. Davis, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and a Full Cast

Random House Audio
Biography & Memoir

An outstanding cast brings these essays and poems vividly to life. Of the many incandescent narrators, JD Jackson (“Upon Arrival”), Kevin R. Free (“Cotton”), January LaVoy (“Sally Hemmings”), and Robin Miles (“Maroons and Marronage”) are masterful. But at least two dozen more could be mentioned. Ninety entries, including 10 poems, encapsulate the African-American experience... Read More

FREEDOM IN THE FAMILY

FREEDOM IN THE FAMILY

Earphones Award Winner

by Tananarive Due, Patricia Stephens Due | Read by Patricia Floyd, Lizan Mitchell

Recorded Books/ Griot Audio
Biography & Memoir

With the passing of Mother Rosa Parks, it's important that we Americans never forget that for every Martin Luther King, Jr., there were hundreds of ordinary people who lived quietly within, but boldly worked to overthrow the segregated South. This mother-daughter duo have penned a riveting account of the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s and 1970s. Within a format that has... Read More

HAND IN HAND

HAND IN HAND Ten Black Men Who Changed America

Earphones Award Winner

by Andrea Davis Pinkney | Read by Phil Morris, Adam Gifford, Zeno Robinson, Kyle Chapple, Ron Butler, Mela Lee

Hachette Audio
Children

In alternating chapters, five talented male voices portray 10 African-American men. This collection moves through American history from the colonial era to the present day. The diversity of voices and accents reflects the men's backgrounds with respect to places of origin and education. With fascinating accounts of familiar role models ranging from author Benjamin Banneker to... Read More

HIS NAME IS GEORGE FLOYD

HIS NAME IS GEORGE FLOYD One Man's Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice

Earphones Award Winner

by Robert Samuels, Toluse Olorunnipa | Read by Dion Graham, Robert Samuels, Toluse Olorunnipa [Intro.]

Penguin Audio
Biography & Memoir

In the last moments of his life, George Floyd called out for his mother. Dion Graham narrates this passage with such knowing naturalism and compassion that it will just about break listeners’ hearts. With his ease with American regional accents and idioms, Graham follows Floyd’s life from North Carolina to coming of age in the tough Third Ward of Houston, Texas. Sensitive and... Read More

HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON

HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON

Earphones Award Winner

by Jon Meacham, John Lewis [Afterword] | Read by JD Jackson, Jon Meacham

Random House Audio
Biography & Memoir

This stirring audiobook offers a memorable merging of author, subject, and narrator. JD Jackson voices John Lewis with an authentic and nuanced nod to his rural Alabama roots. He adroitly does the New England intonations of JFK and RFK and the drawls of LBJ and George Wallace. But it is the powerful retelling of John Lewis’s life’s work fighting to bring civil and voting rights... Read More

HOW THE WORD IS PASSED

HOW THE WORD IS PASSED A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

by Clint Smith | Read by Clint Smith

Hachette Audio
Contemporary Culture

Poet and journalist Clint Smith's debut work of nonfiction captivates as he explores the ways that we Americans confront and reckon with the legacy of slavery in the United States. His resonant voice moves with a poet's rhythm as he takes listeners to former plantations, on historical tours, and to Angola Prison. Many sites are in the American South, though he also includes... Read More

HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST

HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST

by Ibram X. Kendi | Read by Ibram X. Kendi

Random House Audio
Contemporary Culture

With a delivery that is sometimes measured and deliberate, sometimes declaiming, author Kendi (National Book Award winner for STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING) drives home his thesis that the only way to ensure true equality for everyone of every race is to identify and dismantle racist policies and enact explicitly antiracist policies. He frames this thinking within his own... Read More

THE HUMANITY ARCHIVE

THE HUMANITY ARCHIVE Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth

Earphones Award Winner

by Jermaine Fowler | Read by Jermaine Fowler

OrangeSky Audio
History

This is not a passive listen--narrator Jermaine Fowler commands the attention of his audience. His audiobook is a detailed consideration of Black history with a focus on how the American public has learned a deliberately curated story in order to promote a sanitized version. Listeners who only recently learned of the Tulsa Massacre and are wondering what else they haven't been... Read More

JOHN LEWIS

JOHN LEWIS In Search of the Beloved Community

by Raymond Arsenault | Read by Jaime Lincoln Smith

Tantor Media
Biography & Memoir

Through this audiobook, listeners will come to see Civil Rights pioneer John Lewis as a living bridge from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., to President Barack Obama. The force behind the concept of "good trouble," Lewis was inspired to become a minister and to join the Civil Rights movement after hearing King preach over the radio. Lewis was just a boy at the time. His life,... Read More

JUST AS I AM

JUST AS I AM

Earphones Award Winner

by Cicely Tyson, Michelle Burford | Read by Viola Davis, Cicely Tyson, Robin Miles

Harper Audio
Biography & Memoir

After a deeply touching foreword by Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis and an introduction by the indomitable force that was Cicely Tyson (1924-2021)—narrator Robin Miles picks up the torch and delivers 16 riveting, thought-provoking hours on the life and times of the author. She was born in Harlem to parents who were West Indian immigrants. Her career in modeling and show... Read More

KING FOR KIDS

KING FOR KIDS School & Family Edition

Earphones Award Winner

by Martin Luther King, Jr., Clayborne Carson [Ed.] | Read by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hachette Audio
Children

KING FOR KIDS is a misleading title; this recording could well be entitled KING FOR EVERYONE: AN ESSENTIAL INTRODUCTION TO MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. As one narrator remarks, for those who do not have personal memories of this man, this collection bears witness to the period and the person. Hearing each of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, speeches as one in a continuum calls attention... Read More

KING: A LIFE

KING: A LIFE

Earphones Award Winner

by Jonathan Eig | Read by Dion Graham

Macmillan Audio
Biography & Memoir

Dion Graham superbly narrates this riveting audiobook, emulating the majestic cadence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, speeches. He captures the Civil Rights leader’s deep, resonant tone; deliberate ministerial intonation; and, during offstage moments, his world-weariness. When portraying Coretta Scott King, Graham modulates his style, and he shifts into reportorial mode,... Read More

LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL

LETTER FROM BIRMINGHAM JAIL

by Martin Luther King, Jr. | Read by Dion Graham

ChristianAudio
Biography & Memoir

April 1963 found Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, for his leadership role in a Civil Rights protest there. Eight local religious leaders publicly admonished him for his participation, saying that it was particularly unseemly for a clergyman. The eloquence of the response King wrote from his cell, in which he defended "nonviolent, direct action"... Read More

MADNESS

MADNESS Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum

by Antonia Hylton | Read by Antonia Hylton

Hachette Audio
History

Antonia Hylton does a bang-up job narrating her own work, a searing account of Crownsville Hospital, a segregated mental institution in Maryland that served as a dumping ground for any Black person whom white authorities found inconvenient. Crownsville was, for much of its 93-year history, not a place of healing, despite the best efforts of some staff members. Instead, it was a... Read More

THE MARCH AGAINST FEAR

THE MARCH AGAINST FEAR The Last Great Walk of the Civil Rights Movement and the Emergence of Black Power

Earphones Award Winner

by Ann Bausum | Read by Karen Chilton

Recorded Books
Young Adult

Narrator Karen Chilton echoes the determination of Civil Rights activists in Mississippi's often overlooked but hugely influential March against Fear in 1966. Its initiator, James Meredith, was shot early in the march, and his mission was adopted by a coalition of black leaders with sometimes competing agendas. As Martin Luther King, Jr., sought to temper more revolutionary... Read More

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: THE ESSENTIAL BOX SET

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: THE ESSENTIAL BOX SET The Landmark Speeches and Sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Earphones Award Winner

by Martin Luther King, Jr., Clayborne Carson, Kris Shepard, Peter Holloran [Eds.] | Read by Martin Luther King, Jr., Keith David, Jay Gregory, Various Readers

Hachette Audio
History

This remarkable box set of CDs can be cherished for its historic collection of Dr. King’s speeches and sermons but also because it's just a beautiful package, with photos and quotes on the slip jackets and discs. The discs also helpfully list details of the specific speeches and audiences. That's before we even get to the sound parts, for which this is eminently collectable.... Read More

MILES

MILES The Autobiography

Earphones Award Winner

by Miles Davis, Quincy Troupe | Read by Dion Graham

AudioGO
Biography & Memoir

Narrator Dion Graham mimics the raspy, gravelly voice of jazz great Miles Davis to perfection. Covering every aspect of Davis’s tumultuous life, Graham, at times, adds a light chuckle or a low growl to the story—especially as he leads the way through the murky and painful episodes. Most fascinating are the connections between Davis’s relationships and the development of his... Read More

MY SELMA

MY SELMA True Stories of a Southern Childhood at the Height of the Civil Rights Movement

Earphones Award Winner

by Willie Mae Brown | Read by Karen Chilton, Willie Mae Brown [Intro.]

Macmillan Audio
Children

Karen Chilton conveys both powerful joy and profound grief in her narration of Willie Mae Brown's stories about growing up in Selma, Alabama, during the Civil Rights movement. Chilton's voice is delightfully dynamic and expressive, evoking the style of an old-school preacher. She whispers, she thunders, she sings, and she weeps as Brown tries to make sense of the powerful... Read More

ODETTA

ODETTA A Life in Music and Protest

Earphones Award Winner

by Ian Zack | Read by Rosa Howard

Beacon Press
Biography & Memoir

Known as the Queen of Folk during the 1950s-60s, the mononymous singer and guitarist Odetta was also an important Civil Rights activist. A newcomer to audiobook narration, Rosa Howard turns out to be outstanding in her narration of this first full-length biography of an influential but enigmatic figure. Howard is comfortable with Zack’s narrative; she makes his interviews and... Read More

OUR HIDDEN CONVERSATIONS

OUR HIDDEN CONVERSATIONS What Americans Really Think About Race and Identity

Earphones Award Winner

by Michele Norris | Read by Michele Norris and a Full Cast

Simon & Schuster Audio
Contemporary Culture

Peabody Award-winning journalist Michele Norris and a full cast deliver a must-listen performance of Norris's riveting examination of race in America. Based on 12 years of submissions to Norris's Race Card Project--six words about race from over half-a-million people--the audiobook shifts between Norris's clear, warm, thoughtful commentary and participants' contributions, all... Read More

A PROMISED LAND

A PROMISED LAND

Earphones Award Winner

by Barack Obama | Read by Barack Obama

Random House Audio
Biography & Memoir

President Obama’s distinctively deliberate delivery, singular cadence, and love of words are all fully on display in this, the first volume of his monumental memoir. (Another volume is projected.) The sound of his voice—sometimes professorial, sometimes storytelling, occasionally intimate—is well known around the planet. The audiobook is packed with anecdotes and political... Read More

RACHEL: A PLAY IN THREE ACTS

RACHEL: A PLAY IN THREE ACTS

Earphones Award Winner

by Angelina Weld Grimké | Read by Leon Nixon, Tamika Katon-Donegal, Sean Crisden, Karen Chilton, Cary Hite, Adenrele Ojo, Shayna Small, Cortney Wright, Ron Butler

Brilliance Audio
Poetry & Drama

Leading a cast of well-established, award-winning African American voice talents, Tamika Katon-Donegal gives a voice full of bright sensitivity, intelligence, and hope to Rachel, a young early-twentieth-century Black woman who is coming of age and looking to the future. When Rachel runs headlong into the real-life horrors of American racism, she doubts whether she can follow... Read More

ROOTS

ROOTS The Saga of an American Family

Earphones Award Winner

by Alex Haley | Read by Avery Brooks

Blackstone Audio
Biography & Memoir

This is the thirtieth anniversary of this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Presenting the life of the captured and enslaved African Kunte Kinte and his American descendants as representative ancestors for contemporary African-Americans, Haley initiated a dialogue on race in America not experienced since the writing of UNCLE TOM’S CABIN. Those audiophiles who have heard Avery... Read More

SOUTH TO AMERICA

SOUTH TO AMERICA A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

by Imani Perry | Read by Imani Perry

Harper Audio
Contemporary Culture

In this intricate, insightful, and deeply moving work of nonfiction, author/narrator Imani Perry meanders through the South, from New Orleans and DC to the Georgia coast and the West Virginia hills. With a blend of history and personal stories, she explores the South—its culture, language, geography, food, politics—and the crucial role it has played in American history and... Read More

STAMPED

STAMPED Racism, Antiracism, and You

Earphones Award Winner

by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi | Read by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi [Intro.]

Hachette Audio
Children

Jason Reynolds wrote and now narrates a vital and compelling young reader’s remix of Kendi’s STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING. Together, they have created essential listening for younger listeners, those who are raising them, and their teachers. Kendi himself narrates the introduction, setting a serious tone and clearly explaining segregationist, assimilationist, and antiracist... Read More

STAMPED (FOR KIDS)

STAMPED (FOR KIDS) Racism, Antiracism, and You

Earphones Award Winner

by Jason Reynolds, Ibram X. Kendi, Sonja Cherry-Paul [Adapt.] | Read by Pe'Tehn Raighn-Kem Jackson

Hachette Audio
Children

How better to communicate this vital history of racism in America to its young audience than to have the audiobook narrated by a peer? Nine-year-old Pe’Tehn Raighn-Kem Jackson hits it out of the park with her lively and engaging reading. Her voice and delivery are unmistakably those of a kid—and she's an inspired casting choice. Short chapters, ideal for listening to one at a... Read More

THREE POETS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE

THREE POETS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and Countee Cullen

Earphones Award Winner

by Langston Hughes, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Countee Cullen | Read by Kevin Kenerly, Robin Miles, Ron Butler

Blackstone Audio
Poetry & Drama

In this inspiring anthology of more than 250 poems from the 1920s high-water mark of the Harlem Renaissance, narrator Ron Butler accentuates the classical tones and themes of Countee Cullen. Robin Miles finds the warmth and intelligence in Georgia Douglas Johnson's best work. And Kevin Kenerly captures Langston Hughes's distinct groundbreaking jazz rhythms. Quick, focused,... Read More

TRAILBLAZER

TRAILBLAZER A Pioneering Journalist's Fight to Make the Media Look More Like America

Earphones Award Winner

by Dorothy Butler Gilliam | Read by January LaVoy

Hachette Audio
Biography & Memoir

Using an understated conversational style, narrator January LaVoy performs journalist Gilliam’s memoir, which covers both the trajectory of her professional life and the story of a country experiencing the turmoil of change. Gilliam’s journey from pastor’s daughter with a narrow future to first black female reporter and columnist for the WASHINGTON POST spanned the Civil Rights... Read More

UNSPEAKABLE

UNSPEAKABLE The Tulsa Race Massacre

Earphones Award Winner

by Carole Boston Weatherford | Read by January LaVoy, Carole Boston Weatherford

Dreamscape
Children

Music and sound effects accentuate the moods in this nonfiction picture book about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. January LaVoy narrates with a range of emotions. She opens cheerfully, detailing the thriving Black community's prosperity, reading the repeated refrains: "Once upon a time in Greenwood . . ." and "Once upon a time on Black Wall Street . . ." City sounds and... Read More

WAKE

WAKE The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts

Earphones Award Winner

by Rebecca Hall, Tyler English-Beckwith | Read by DeWanda Wise, Chanté Adams, Jerrie Johnson, Bahni Turpin, and a Full Cast

Podium Audio
Biography & Memoir

Opening with the film-like sounds of a gathering storm at sea and a group of captive African women staging a desperate battle for their freedom, this combined memoir/audio play/graphic novel bursts with energy, inspiration, and little-known historical facts throughout. Based on Rebecca Hall’s pioneering research into women-led slave revolts, the story becomes personal when... Read More

THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS

THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

Earphones Award Winner

by Isabel Wilkerson | Read by Robin Miles

Brilliance Audio
History

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s extraordinary history of the twentieth-century migration of Southern black citizens to Northern and Western cities is narrated in standard American English by Robin Miles. But this is a book rich in dialogue. In the melted-butter drawls of rural Southern sharecroppers and in the crisp accents of Northern factory workers, Miles... Read More

YOU DON'T KNOW US NEGROES

YOU DON'T KNOW US NEGROES And Other Essays

Earphones Award Winner

by Zora Neale Hurston, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Genevieve West [Eds. & Intro.] | Read by Robin Miles

Harper Audio
Contemporary Culture

Robin Miles narrates this audiobook with empathy and a sure sense of Hurston’s literary voice. She arranges her pace and adapts her tone in ways that give listeners access to the author’s idiosyncratic brilliance. Capturing Hurston’s intonations and invigorating her varied essays with an understanding of the author’s intentions help reveal her meanings and bring Hurston’s world... Read More

YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED TO DIE BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN TO LIVE

YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED TO DIE BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN TO LIVE Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America

Earphones Award Winner

by Paul Kix | Read by Jaime Lincoln-Smith

Macmillan Audio
History

This audiobook perfectly captures the extraordinary Project C, the ten- week campaign to end segregation in Birmingham, Alabama, which was crucial to the subsequent success of the 1963 March on Washington. Jaime Lincoln-Smith's performance is exceptional. He complements the book's historical precision with his delivery of the memorable voice of Martin Luther King, Jr., while... Read More

ZORA AND LANGSTON

ZORA AND LANGSTON A Story of Friendship and Betrayal

Earphones Award Winner

by Yuval Taylor | Read by Bahni Turpin

HighBridge Audio
Biography & Memoir

Narrator Bahni Turpin engages the listener with this complex dual biography of writers Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. While both are known as luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, this audiobook explores the lesser known aspects of their friendship and collaboration throughout the 1920s and ‘30s, which ended in a bitter split. Turpin keeps the pace of the work flowing... Read More

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