Our Kind of People Audiobook By Lawrence Otis Graham cover art

Our Kind of People

Inside America's Black Upper Class

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Our Kind of People

By: Lawrence Otis Graham
Narrated by: Rhett Samuel Price
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Now a TV series on FOX starring Morris Chestnut, Yaya DaCosta, Nadine Ellis, and Joe Morton.

Debutante cotillions. Million-dollar homes. Summers in Martha's Vineyard. Membership in the Links, Jack & Jill, Deltas, Boule, and AKAs. An obsession with the right schools, families, social clubs, and skin complexion. This is the world of the black upper class and the focus of the first book written about the black elite by a member of this hard-to-penetrate group.

Author and TV commentator Lawrence Otis Graham, one of the nation's most prominent spokesmen on race and class, spent six years interviewing the wealthiest black families in America, who made their first millions in the 1870s. Graham tells who's in and who's not in the group today with separate chapters on the elite in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Nashville, and New Orleans. A new Introduction explains the controversy that the book elicited from both the black and white communities.

©2009 Lawrence Otis Graham (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers African American Studies Americas Black & African American Social Sciences Sociology Specific Demographics United States Social justice

Critic reviews

"Fascinating. . . . [Graham] has made a major contribution both to African-American studies and the larger American picture."—New York Times
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This story of race, class, families, and earned privilege is something that needs to be shared with black youth and the community. You find out the who’s who and who did what. The lineages of business men and women, doctors, lawyers, engineers, educators, and socialites, among others who built thriving communities in Nee York, Atlanta, Detroit, Martha’s Vineyard, Tennessee, and more before and during integration. We need this for inspiration to move and grow during these times when history is being erased or just restricted to the same 3-5 people during Black History Month. Our Kind of People is inspirational, jarring, thought provoking and serves as a source of pride. It’s a history lesson and should be respected as any other book would be that describes any other group of people’s accomplishments. I could go on but everyone should read this and anything else to broaden your perspective on who you think we are. We are more than hustlers, athletes and entertainers.

The Gilded Age for Black Americans?

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