African American Families

While the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, white southerners established a system of apprenticeship after the Civil War that entrapped Black children and their families, leading to undue hardships for generations to come. In Slavery After Slavery, historian Mary Frances Berry traces the stories behind individual cases from southern supreme courts to demonstrate how formerly enslaved families and their descendants were systemically injured through white supremacist practices, perpetuated by the legal system.

Journalist Chris Tomlinson grew up hearing stories about his family's abandoned cotton plantation in Falls County, Texas. Most of the tales lionized his white ancestors for pioneering along the Brazos River. His grandfather often said the family's slaves loved them so much that they also took Tomlinson as their last name. LaDainian Tomlinson, football great and former running back for the San Diego Chargers, spent part of his childhood playing on the same land that his Black ancestors had worked as slaves.

Long before she was one of the Little Rock Nine, Melba Pattillo Beals was a warrior. Frustrated by the laws that kept African Americans separate but very much unequal to whites, she had questions: Why couldn't she drink from a whites-only fountain? Why couldn't she feel safe beyond home - or even within the walls of church? Adults all told her: Hold your tongue. Be patient. Know your place. But Beals had the heart of a fighter - and the knowledge that her true place was a free one.

In this novel of family and redemption, a mother struggles to save her eighteen-year-old daughter from the devastating consequences of mental illness by forcing her to deal with her bipolar disorder. New York Times best-selling author Bebe Moore Campbell draws on her own powerful emotions and African-American roots, showcasing her best writing yet.

Brady Bledsoe and his mother, Carmyn, have a strong relationship. A single mother, faithful churchgoer, and the owner of several successful Atlanta beauty salons, Carmyn has devoted herself to her son and his dream of becoming a professional football player. Brady has always followed her lead, including becoming a member of the church's "Celibacy Circle".

In the early 1900s an important ship sinks into the Caribbean Sea, just as the Virgin Islands are transferred from Danish to American rule. Orphaned by the sunk vessel are two sisters and their half-brother, now faced with an uncertain identity and future. Each of them is unusually beautiful, and each is in possession of a particular magic that will either sink or save them. Chronicling three generations of an island family from 1916 to the 1970s, Land of Love and Drowning is a novel of love and magic.

This drama that explores what happens to an African American family in 2015, when an inheritance becomes the focal point that leads to the discovery of things about themselves that are both revealing and forever life changing. The main cast of seven characters include a widow, her two children, a brother and a sister in law. This is the kind of mainstay drama that will pull and push the listener and audience and in the process make one ask and contemplate questions about the complex nature of family relationships.

Carole and Jeffery Boston Weatherford’s ancestors are among the founders of Maryland. Their family history there extends more than three hundred years, but as with the genealogical searches of many African Americans with roots in slavery, their family tree can only be traced back five generations before going dark. And so from scraps of history, Carole and Jeffery have conjured the voices of their kin, creating an often painful but ultimately empowering story of who their people were in a breathtaking book that is at once deeply personal yet all too universal.

"Author Ashley Woodfolk's voice is clear and bright, making this a pleasant listening experience." - AudioFile Magazine This program is read by the author. Inspired by the life and quotations of former first lady Michelle Obama, Opening My Eyes Underwater is a collection of essays by bestselling...

The next generation of the Jamiesons want to make this the best Christmas celebration ever. Presents aren't required. With the help of their Robnett cousins, sisters Kami and Victoria are creating traditional and new dishes for their family. What's not on the menu is romance. But the holidays are the perfect time to fall in love.

"Narrators Dion Graham and Mychal-Bella Bowman's grand and lively performances will have young listeners eager to hear every story in this vibrant collection of African and African-American-inspired tales."—AudioFile From the New York Times bestselling authors of GLORY, Kahran and Regis...

Lauren realizes she does not have enough money to buy a stuffed unicorn. She does chores and saves her allowance to get the stuffed animal of her dreams.

In this heart-warming short story, meet wife and mother Eugeena Patterson. Eugeena has always been the glue keeping her fragmented family together. When her teenage daughter is rushed to the hospital, Eugeena’s usual attempts to maintain peace in her family reach a breaking point. Will her troubled teenage daughter rip the family apart?

A moving and inspiring memoir from a former Obama White House staffer, about his rural Maryland family’s untold history, the merger of three churches—one Black, two white—and how a radical embrace of community became their salvation, and his. Jason Green was raised on...

This program is read by the author, Will Jawando, who has been called “the progressive leader we need” by the late congressman John Lewis. "Will Jawando's account of mentorship, service, and healing lays waste to the racist stereotype of the absent Black father. By arguing that Black fathers...

Cris Burks won widespread acclaim for her engaging first novel, SilkyDreamGirl. Burks' second offering follows the life of a determined girl struggling toward adulthood in 1950s Chicago. The devastating discovery that "Daddy" is not her real father opens a great chasm in Neecey's world and leads to Neecey's abusive mother bringing a succession of no-good men into the home. Nevertheless, as she grows into a woman, the resilient Neecey strives to overcome despair and forge a new life for herself.

Valerie Flournoy and Jerry Pinkney created a warmhearted intergenerational story that became an award-winning perennial. Since then children from all sorts of family situations and configurations continue to be drawn to its portrait of those bonds that create the fabric of family life.

Confronting loss, historical intersections with race and family, and the threshold between childhood and adulthood, Smith gathers courage and direction from the many disparate selves encountered in these poems, until, as she writes, "I was anyone I wanted to be."

Hearing the news that his mother is leaving their family home without explanation, the life of young Marcellous Thompson begins to unravel. As Marcellous progresses from adolescence into young adulthood, for each traumatic event he overcomes another is awaiting perilously around the corner. Betrayal, heartbreak, depression, and love are a handful of emotions Marcellous must master in order to grow into the man he has always envisioned within himself. Does he has the perseverance and fortitude to survive, or will he succumb to the pressures of his life?

Faithful and humble wife Kokei Keyu seemed to enjoy a near-perfect marriage until her husband, Dodeye, accepted a chieftaincy title from home. Kokei’s life is about to change forever. In a compelling and spellbinding drama, age-long secrets burst into a once-peaceful home, causing more damage than all anticipated, revealing the past and showing that what we sow is really what we are going to reap.