Top 8 Black History Month Audiobooks To Learn From

Time and again, words have proven themselves to be very powerful things. There’s no better picture of this than that of Black people using literature as a way to understand the world around them and the beauty and brutality that came with it.

All across the globe, Black people have used words as weapons in fighting against transphobia, colonialism, misogyny, and of course, systemic racism. Words have also been used to tell some of the most wonderful and beautiful stories about them.

So in honor of Black History Month, we’ve listed some of the best Black audiobooks available on AudiobooksNow that you can listen to and immerse yourself in. These titles tackle the richness of the Black diaspora, and each one contains experiences that we can all learn from.

1. Black is the Body (Emily Bernard)

Fresh, compact and witty, this book contains 12 standout essays that tackle Bernard’s life as a Black woman. Growing up in the south and living as an adult in Vermont, Bernard wrote about subjects that hit close to home, such as teaching an all-white class and adopting her own two daughters from Ethiopia.

Devoid of any jargon and as honest as it is openly questioning, this audiobook offers wonderful stories and heartfelt insight into what it's like to navigate the world as a Black woman.

Listen to the audiobook, which Emily Bernard herself narrates.

2. Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow (Henry Louis Gates Jr.)

It’s often said that the emancipation sparked “a new birth of freedom” in Lincoln’s America, but if that’s the case, then why did Martin Luther King Jr. have to march in his own America? In this book, author Henry Louis Gates Jr. attempts to answer why. It explores the struggles, terror and heroic resistance African-Americans went through after the Civil War to gain equality.

Understand this important period in Black American history by listening to the audiobook here.

3. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Harriet Jacobs)

This was originally published in 1861, right after the infamous American Civil War began. Author Harriet Ann Jacobs tells of all the horrors of the slave life that she had to go through as a young girl. These include her slaveholder’s sexual harassment, his jealous wife’s physical brutality and her eventual escape to the north.

One of the few autobiographical accounts on slavery made by a woman, this book is both unflinching and honest and stands as an important counterpoint to male slave narratives.

Narrated to life by Lisa Renee Pitts, you can listen to the audiobook here.

4. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (James Weldon Johnson)

In addition to creating “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is widely considered the Black national anthem, James Weldon Johnson made a significant contribution to his culture via this gripping novel.

This widely-influential book, the first-ever fictional memoir written by a Black person, explores Johnson’s story as a young boy. He was raised by a Black mother but believed he was white because of his biracial heritage. An examination of a nation’s obsession with color, Johnson gives firsthand accounts of what it’s like occupying two racial spaces but not knowing where he truly fits.

Listen to this classic novel in audiobook format now.

5. Mules and Men (Zora Neale Hurston)

In the 1930s, author Zora Neale Hurston returned to her “native village” of Eatonville, Florida, to record oral histories, songs and sermons — and the result is this book.

Known as the first-ever great collection of Black America’s folk world, this book manages to bring forth the beauty and richness of common folk and Hurston’s own cultural heritage, whether through their diction, voice, living, or way of life.

Explore the wonderful world of Black folklore by listening to the audiobook.

6. Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time, this monumental title is as shocking as it is comedic — and as strange as it is realistic.

Penned by Ralph Ellison, “Invisible Man” is an existentialist story told through the lens of a lone, nameless Black man navigating through a white world. An allegory for the entire Black race, this book is a triumph in both storytelling and characterization for these people, making it a classic in ways more than one.

Explore this existential classic through the audiobook, which Joe Morton narrates.

7. 145^th Street: Short Stories (Walter Dean Myers)

In this honest collection of stories that are set on a block located along 145th street, you will meet characters with all sorts of lives — some private and some behind the headlines.

With stories of danger, despair, hilarity and just pure joy, this book is a celebration of African-American life in all of its glory, told through the lens of one unforgettable block right in the heart of Harlem.

Meet its wonderful people by listening to the audiobook here.

8. Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream (Blair Imani)

Over the course of six decades, a large wave of Black Americans forever impacted the culture and demographic of 20th -century United States by leaving the south and spreading across the nation — and this book chronicles that impact.

Written by author and activist Blair Imani, this book explores that often overlooked influence in America caused by the powerful journey, whether through the Reconstruction era and the rise of hip-hop — or the discrimination, racism and domestic terrorism that so many Black Americans experience today.

Get a better understanding of this historic migration by listening to the audiobook.

All of these works, plus a wide selection of titles from multiple genres, can now be enjoyed for a great price at AudiobooksNow.