Black histories

Find these audiobooks and more on the NMC Library’s Libby app. Follow these instructions to download Libby and set up your account.

American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics by Kevin Hazzard
“Journalist and former paramedic Kevin Hazzard paints a vivid picture of the nation’s first EMS service….[His book] is a medical and human drama that will make readers appreciate the courage of the first paramedics, the foresight of a physician not content to restrict emergency medicine to other doctors and the artistry of modern EMS workers. It’s also a narrative bristling with the indignities of racism and medical ignorance. Hazzard’s subjects defied and overcame prejudice but also were often overwhelmed by both.”―The Washington Post

Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People by Tiya Miles
“Though broad strokes of Tubman’s story are widely known, Miles probes deeper, examining her inner life, faith and relationships with other enslaved Black women to paint a deeper, more vibrant portrait of a historical figure whose mythic status can sometimes overshadow her humanity.” – The New York Times

A Black Women’s History of the United States by Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross
Historians Berry and Gross illuminate the lives of black women like “Isabel de Olvera, the first black woman to arrive in North America in 1600, Milly and Christine McCoy, enslaved conjoined twins, Gladys Bentley, the gender-bending blues musician, Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress” – WHYY/Radio Times

Hip Hop is History by Questlove
“Questlove traces the creative and cultural forces that made and shaped hip-hop, highlighting both the forgotten but influential gems and the undeniable chart-topping hits-and weaves it all together with the stories no one else knows.” – from the publisher

Black AF History by Michael Harriot
“Emphasizing Black survival and resistance, Harriot simplifies complex issues into easily understandable, digestible bites. . . . Blunt, entertaining, irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes laugh-out-loud.” — Library Journal

The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi by Wright Thompson
“Thompson . . . has written a gut-punch of a book about the murder of Emmett Till and the place where it happened. Foregoing the harrowing photos that emphasize Till’s martyrdom, Thompson dives instead into family trees, court transcripts, witness memoirs and more to unearth the enormous human tragedy we forget at our peril: ‘Hate grows stronger and resistant,’ he reminds us, ‘when it’s pushed underground.’” — Los Angeles Times

Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum by Antonia Hilton
“Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist Antonia Hylton tells the ninety-three-year history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the last segregated asylums with surviving records and a campus that still stands to this day in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. She blends the intimate tales of patients and employees whose lives were shaped by Crownsville with a decade-worth of investigative research.” – from the publisher

 

Further listening: Critically acclaimed podcasts

The Black History Buff podcast

Black History Buff

Buried Truths podcast

Buried Truths

Uncivil podcast

Uncivil