Listen free for 30 days

  • My Vanishing Country

  • A Memoir
  • Written by: Bakari Sellers
  • Narrated by: Bakari Sellers
  • Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (15 ratings)

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
My Vanishing Country cover art

My Vanishing Country

Written by: Bakari Sellers
Narrated by: Bakari Sellers
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $6.99

Buy Now for $6.99

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

What J. D. Vance did for Appalachia with Hillbilly Elegy, CNN analyst and one of the youngest state representatives in South Carolina history Bakari Sellers does for the rural South, in this important audiobook that illuminates the lives of America’s forgotten Black working-class men and women.

Part memoir, part historical and cultural analysis, My Vanishing Country is an eye-opening journey through the South's past, present, and future.

Anchored in in Bakari Seller’s hometown of Denmark, South Carolina, Sellers illuminates the pride and pain that continues to fertilize the soil of one of the poorest states in the nation. He traces his father’s rise to become, friend of Stokely Carmichael and Martin Luther King, a civil rights hero, and member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) , to explore the plight of the South's dwindling rural, Black working class - many of whom can trace their ancestry back for seven generations.

In his poetic personal history, we are awakened to the crisis affecting the other “Forgotten Men and Women” whom the media seldom acknowledges. For Sellers, these are his family members, neighbors, and friends. He humanizes the struggles that shape their lives: to gain access to healthcare as rural hospitals disappear; to make ends meet as the factories they have relied on shut down and move overseas; to hold on to precious traditions as their towns erode; to forge a path forward without succumbing to despair.

My Vanishing Country is also a love letter to fatherhood - to Sellers' father, his lodestar, whose life lessons have shaped him, and to his newborn twins, who he hopes will embrace the Sellers family name and honor its legacy.

©2020 Bakari Sellers (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

More from the same

What listeners say about My Vanishing Country

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Must Read

I am an educated white woman. Prior to the murder of George Floyd I began to read about the black experience. I had asked questions but the frustration of realities I could not understand fully brought angry, unsatisfying. I needed to hear honest answers that came from the heart. I read several books like Born a Crime and Becoming. I visited the online Jim Crow museum and followed its links.
I heard Mr Sellers talking about racism (in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder)with Don Lemon and immediately bought his book. ,
These books left me feeling hopeful for permanent change and made me a lot ashamed because I never saw myself as radish and still don’t but I also never thought myself ignorant which I now do.
Thank you for teaching me important things. I will continue my learning
But you give me hope

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!