Black Authors

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

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

n original and consequential argument about race, crime, and the law Today, Americans are debating our criminal justice system with new urgency. Mass incarceration and aggressive police tactics-and their impact on people of color-are feeding outrage and a consensus that something must be done. But what if we only know half the story? In Locking... Read more

Jake the Fake Keeps it Real

By: Craig Robinson & Adam Mansbach

Narrated by: Sullivan Jones

Length: 1 hour 46 minutes

Abridged: No

For fans of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Big Nate comes the first book in a side-splitting illustrated series from comedian and film star Craig Robinson, #1 New York Times bestselling author Adam Mansbach, and NAACP History Maker recipient and cartoonist Keith Knight.
 
Jake can barely play an instrument, not even a kazoo. And his art? It’s better... 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

Sugar

By: Bernice L. McFadden

Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor

Length: 8 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

A novel by a critically acclaimed voice in contemporary fiction, praised by Ebony for its “unforgettable images, unique characters, and moving story that keeps the pages turning until the end.”A young prostitute comes to Bigelow, Arkansas, to start over, far from her haunting past. Sugar moves next door to Pearl, who is still grieving for the... Read more

The President’s Kitchen Cabinet

By: Adrian Miller

Narrated by: Ron Butler

Length: 9 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

James Beard award–winning author Adrian Miller vividly tells the stories of the African Americans who worked in the presidential food service as chefs, personal cooks, butlers, stewards, and servers for every First Family since George and Martha Washington. Miller brings together the names and words of more than 150 black men and women who... Read more

Harriet Tubman

By: Catherine Clinton

Narrated by: Shayna Small

Length: 8 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

The definitive biography of one of the most courageous women in American history "reveals Harriet Tubman to be even more remarkable than her legend" (Newsday).
Celebrated for her exploits as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman has entered history as one of nineteenth-century America's most enduring and important figures. But... Read more

They Can't Kill Us All

By: Wesley Lowery

Narrated by: Ron Butler

Length: 8 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

A deeply reported book that brings alive the quest for justice in the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Freddie Gray, offering both unparalleled insight into the reality of police violence in America and an intimate, moving portrait of those working to end it.

Conducting hundreds of interviews during the course of over one year reporting... Read more

The Sun is Also a Star

By: Nicola Yoon

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Raymond Lee & Dominic Hoffman

Length: 8 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

The #1 New York Times bestseller and National Book Award Finalist from the bestselling author of Everything, Everything will have you falling in love with Natasha and Daniel as they fall in love with each other.

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not... Read more

You Can't Touch My Hair

By: Phoebe Robinson

Narrated by: Phoebe Robinson, Jessica Williams & John Hodgman

Length: 7 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • "A must-read…Phoebe Robinson discusses race and feminism in such a funny, real, and specific way, it penetrates your brain and stays with you." –Ilana Glazer, co-creator and co-star of Broad City

A hilarious and timely essay collection about race, gender, and pop culture from upcoming comedy superstar and 2 Dope... Read more

The Doctor Is In

By: Carl Weber & Brenda Hampton

Narrated by: Lynnette Freeman

Length: 8 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

Dr. Kasen Phillips has the magic touch when it comes to helping his patients who are in dire need of counseling services, but when the love of his life winds up missing in action, Kasen's life takes a horrific turn for the worse. His office manager, Voncile Harper, is there to lend a helping hand. She's on a mission to shake Kasen from his... Read more

Sing for Your Life

By: Daniel Bergner

Narrated by: Ryan Vincent Anderson

Length: 8 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

The New York Times bestseller about a young black man's journey from violence and despair to the threshold of stardom: "A beautiful tribute to the power of good teachers" (Terry Gross, Fresh Air).

"One of the most inspiring stories I've come across in a long time."-Pamela Paul, New York Times Book Review

Ryan Speedo Green had a tough upbringing... Read more

Original Gangstas

By: Ben Westhoff

Narrated by: J. D. Jackson

Length: 15 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

"Raw, authoritative, and unflinching ... An elaborately detailed, darkly surprising, definitive history of the LA gangsta rap era." -- Kirkus, starred review

A monumental, revealing narrative history about the legendary group of artists at the forefront of West Coast hip-hop: Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur.

Amid rising... Read more

The Defender

By: Ethan Michaeli

Narrated by: William Hughes

Length: 22 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Giving voice to the voiceless, the Chicago Defender condemned Jim Crow, catalyzed the Great Migration, and focused the electoral power of black America. Robert S. Abbott founded the Defender in 1905, smuggled hundreds of thousands of copies into the most isolated communities in the segregated South, and was dubbed a “Modern Moses,” becoming one... Read more

Tell the Truth & Shame the Devil

By: Lezley McSpadden

Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts

Length: 10 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

This revelatory memoir by the mother of Michael Brown, the African American teenager killed by the police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, sheds light on one of the landmark events in recent history.“I wasn’t there when Mike Mike was shot. I didn’t see him fall or take his last breath, but as his mother, I do know one thing... Read more