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Why We Can't Wait
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
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Publisher's summary
Dr. King's best-selling account of the civil rights movement in Birmingham during the spring and summer of 1963
On April 16, 1963, as the violent events of the Birmingham campaign unfolded in the city's streets, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., composed a letter from his prison cell in response to local religious leaders' criticism of the campaign. The resulting piece of extraordinary protest writing, "Letter from Birmingham Jail", was widely circulated and published in numerous periodicals. After the conclusion of the campaign and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, King further developed the ideas introduced in the letter in Why We Can't Wait, which tells the story of African-American activism in the spring and summer of 1963. During this time, Birmingham, Alabama, was perhaps the most racially segregated city in the United States, but the campaign launched by King, Fred Shuttlesworth, and others demonstrated to the world the power of nonviolent direct action.
Often applauded as King's most incisive and eloquent book, Why We Can't Wait recounts the Birmingham campaign in vivid detail, while underscoring why 1963 was such a crucial year for the civil rights movement. Disappointed by the slow pace of school desegregation and civil rights legislation, King observed that by 1963 - during which the country celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation - Asia and Africa were "moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence but we still creep at a horse-and-buggy pace."
King examines the history of the civil rights struggle, noting tasks that future generations must accomplish to bring about full equality, and asserts that African Americans have already waited over three centuries for civil rights and that it is time to be proactive: "For years now, I have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.' We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.'"
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The powerful, long-repressed classic of Dallas history that examines the violent and suppressed history of race and racism in the city. Written by longtime Dallas political journalist Jim Schutze, formerly of the Dallas Times Herald and Dallas Observer and currently columnist at D Magazine, The Accommodation follows the story of Dallas from slavery through the civil rights movement and the city’s desegregation efforts in the 1950s and ‘60s.
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Floored
- By Anthony on 09-16-22
By: Jim Schutze, and others
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A Voice That Could Stir an Army
- Fannie Lou Hamer and the Rhetoric of the Black Freedom Movement
- By: Maegan Parker Brooks
- Narrated by: Kristyl Dawn Tift
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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A sharecropper, a warrior, and a truth-telling prophet, Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) stands as a powerful symbol not only of the 1960s Black freedom movement, but also of the enduring human struggle against oppression. This is a rhetorical biography that tells the story of Hamer's life by focusing on how she employed symbols - images, words, and even material objects such as the ballot, food, and clothing - to construct persuasive public personae, to influence audiences, and to effect social change.
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A rhetorical biography of Fannie Lou Hamer.
- By Adam Shields on 04-27-23
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Faces at the Bottom of the Well
- The Permanence of Racism
- By: Derrick Bell, Michelle Alexander - foreword
- Narrated by: Brad Raymond
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In Faces at the Bottom of the Well, civil rights activist and legal scholar Derrick Bell uses allegory and historical example to argue that racism is an integral and permanent part of American society. African American struggles for equality are doomed to fail so long as the majority of Whites do not see their own wellbeing threatened by the status quo. Bell calls on African Americans to face up to this unhappy truth and abandon a misplaced faith in inevitable progress.
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This is a classic for a reason.
- By Adam Shields on 12-01-20
By: Derrick Bell, and others
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Gandhi & Churchill
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 29 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fast-paced epic, best-selling historian and master storyteller Arthur Herman spotlights two giants of the 20th century. Gandhi & Churchill shows how their 40-year rivalry revolutionized India and the British Empire, paving the way for a new era. Gandhi championed India's independence, Churchill the British Empire.
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A motif that works well
- By Maine Dave on 11-30-09
By: Arthur Herman
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The American Experiment
- By: James MacGregor Burns
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 88 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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James MacGregor Burns’s stunning trilogy of American history, spanning the birth of the Constitution to the final days of the Cold War. In these three volumes, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner James MacGregor Burns chronicles with depth and narrative panache the most significant cultural, economic, and political events of American history.
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American History ABCs
- By Michael on 06-16-15
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Waging a Good War
- A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas E. Ricks offers an utterly new perspective on America’s greatest moral revolution—the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s—and its legacy today. While the Movement has become synonymous with Martin Luther King Jr.’s ethos of nonviolence, Ricks draws on his deep knowledge of tactics and strategy to advance a surprising but revelatory idea: the greatest victories for Black Americans of the past century were won not by idealism alone, but through recruiting, training, discipline, and organization—the hallmarks of any successful military campaign.
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I was born and raised in Alabama. Jim Crow Era.
- By Moses Pitts on 10-06-22
By: Thomas E. Ricks
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America Aflame
- How the Civil War Created a Nation
- By: David Goldfield
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 27 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In this spellbinding new history, David Goldfield offers the first major new interpretation of the Civil War era since James M. McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. Where past scholars have interpreted the war as a triumph of freedom, Goldfield sees it as America's greatest failure: the result of a breakdown caused by the infusion of evangelical religion into the public sphere.
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Great and indepth
- By Kindle Customer on 06-02-14
By: David Goldfield
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Democracy in Black
- How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul
- By: Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
- Narrated by: Kevin Free
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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America's great promise of equality has always rung hollow in the ears of African Americans. But today the situation has grown even more dire. From the murders of black youth by the police to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act to the disaster visited upon poor and middle-class black families by the Great Recession, it is clear that black America faces an emergency - at the very moment the election of the first black president has prompted many to believe we've solved America's race problem.
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The Dysfunctional Mindset of American
- By Paul T. on 07-09-16
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Frederick Douglass
- Prophet of Freedom
- By: David W. Blight
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 36 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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As a young man, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. He wrote three versions of his autobiography over the course of his lifetime and published his own newspaper. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence, he bore witness to the brutality of slavery.
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The sound of rollerskating in sand
- By Rico X Ludovici on 02-06-19
By: David W. Blight
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What Truth Sounds Like
- Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America
- By: Michael Eric Dyson
- Narrated by: Michael Eric Dyson
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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This audiobook exists at the tense intersection of the conflict between politics and prophecy - of whether we embrace political resolution or moral redemption to fix our fractured racial landscape.
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Riffing on a meeting with RFK and James Baldwin
- By Adam Shields on 06-08-18
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This Child Will Be Great
- Memoir of a Remarkable Life by Africa's First Woman President
- By: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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The first elected woman president of an African country, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was also listed as one of the world’s 100 Most Powerful Women by Forbes. This evocative memoir recounts Sirleaf ’s childhood upbringing and rise to political power in Liberia. More than a simple biography, Sirleaf ’s account details how she stood firm in the face of physical abuse early in life and carried that strength over into her career as a young economist in Samuel Doe’s regime.
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What a powerfully strong woman!
- By Gary on 10-18-11
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Thinking Through Paul: Audio Lectures
- A Survey of His Life, Letters, and Theology
- By: Bruce W. Longenecker, Todd D. Still
- Narrated by: Bruce W. Longenecker, Todd D. Still
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Original Recording
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The study of Paul and his letters can be exciting, challenging, and life-changing, but only if it is done well and only if listeners achieve more than a basic familiarity with the subject. This is exactly what Pauline experts Bruce W. Longenecker and Todd D. Still accomplish with Thinking Through Paul: Audio Lectures.
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Very interesting and useful resource
- By NOAH T. SMITH on 03-09-23
By: Bruce W. Longenecker, and others
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What listeners say about Why We Can't Wait
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- KR
- 06-22-20
Must Read
The words of Dr. MLK are so powerful and thought provoking. This should be required reading for all!
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- Philip Childs
- 03-20-24
Wow
This was ana amazing book and MLK Jr. was an amazing writer and really encapsulated the movement at that time.
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- Miguel Concha
- 02-02-21
Incredible
I’m 35 years old and learnt that I’ve never listened to any of MLK’s speeches in full context nor read much about him. I also grieve that his legacy isn’t taught in schools. As a teenager I don’t think I was in the space to pay much attention. But now as I am paying more attention to the world, notably this nations horrific history, it would have been nice to point to MLK and everyone who’s attending public education know the incredible work and sacrifices he made. The words he has for this time is priceless and precious.
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3 people found this helpful
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- johnnyka
- 05-13-22
A book by a pragmatic visionary way ahead of most
A reference for human rights activists, economists, and politicians of all ways of life, allegiance or creed.
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- Otis
- 03-09-24
Great material
As one read through this material, you can since the urgency or the call to action or the “time is now” mindset. This book speaks on the struggles of the movement for civil rights and racial injustices that plague ethnic minority groups in America. The book is a great read but the chapter entitled the Letter from a Birmingham Jail alone is worth the read. Recommended.
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- Bryan Moore
- 02-16-21
a great historical read worthy of new attention
I wanted to go back to the beginning of the modern civil rights movement. We as a country have created new sanctioned forms of discrimination and cancellation, too, so it's worth a refresher to understand and persevere with patience and nonviolent insistence.
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- Green mama
- 02-20-20
A prophet of our times!
Everyone must read these words from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A true prophetic voice. We need to take up the belief once again of non violent, direct action.
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- Samuel Wicoff
- 06-28-20
Relevant for all
MLK is the most celebrated American civil rights activist for many reasons, and this book largely explains why. He preaches non-violence as the most effective tool to drive social justice movements in America and in the world. The history of the Civil Rights movement in America is eloquently presented by MLK, who is lyrically masterful at conveying many sides of the complexity of racism in America. Further, the narrator tells the story beautifully. Especially given the tumultuous racial issues currently happening (especially since the George Floyd incident and more), this is a must read book for everyone, especially those looking to affect change.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jamal R. Felton
- 04-07-20
Insightful
A detailed look behind the curtain and an elaboration of the context of a time we all have heard about but scarcely understand.
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- julia
- 11-17-19
incredibly moving
not much more i can say than it being a hell of a listen. and a extremely well written as well as being highly touching.
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1 person found this helpful