Audiobooks narrated by Beresford Bennett

Faithful Defiance: Marshall Keeble's Life and Legacy

"Marshall Keeble, the premier evangelist in Churches of Christ in the twentieth century, died in April 1968, the same month as Martin Luther King Jr. Keeble spent fifty-five years as a full-time evangelist using his remarkable gifts, steadfastness, toughness, and tactical navigation of the Black/White divide to baptize as many as forty thousand people. He planted and raised over three hundred congregations and mentored powerful sons and grandsons in the faith, including Fred Gray, the famous civil rights attorney. Keeble's message was simple, but his life is more complicated than many have thought. Even his closest admirers disagreed with him and were baffled by his unflinching silence on the topic of race. Never in his life did Keeble openly defy segregation although he did confront the innumerable racist attacks and humiliations he experienced. His commitment to evangelism was unwavering; he wanted nothing to get in the way of it. He championed self-help and personal morality and thought broader politics were of little value. Faithful Defiance recounts the remarkable story of Keeble's life, revealing fresh insights into how his legacy continues to challenge and inform the present day."

C. Leonard Allen (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Accidental Sweethearts

"Honey Hill residents have enough to gossip about without Happi Daniels and Sebastian Charles adding their drama to the mix. However, when details of their accidental Vegas nuptials are made known, the hairstylist and home renovation expert become the talk of the town. Outside forces are hard at work to ensure Happi and Sebastian find the happily ever after neither are looking for. But will it be enough to ensure the two remain one?"

Joy Avery (Author), Beresford Bennett, Dara Brown (Narrator)

Audiobook

'No Equal Justice': The Legacy of Civil Rights Icon George W. Crockett Jr.

"'There is no equal justice for Black people today; there never has been. To our everlasting shame, the quality of justice in America has always been and is now directly related to the color of one's skin as well as to the size of one's pocketbook.' This quote comes from George W. Crockett Jr.'s essay, 'A Black Judge Speaks' (Judicature, 1970). The stories of Black lawyers and judges are rarely told. By sharing Crockett's life of principled courage, 'No Equal Justice' breaks this silence. The book begins by tracing the Crockett family history from slavery to George's admission into the University of Michigan Law School. He became one of the most senior Black lawyers in President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal administration. Later, he played a central role fighting discrimination in the United Auto Workers union. In 1949, he became the only Black lawyer, in a team of five attorneys, defending the constitutional rights of the leaders of the U.S. Communist Party in United States v. Dennis, the longest and most dramatic political trial in American history. At the close of the case, Crockett and his defense colleagues were summarily sentenced to prison for zealously representing their clients. He headed the National Lawyers Guild office in Jackson, Mississippi, during 1964's Freedom Summer. In 1966, he was elected to Detroit's Recorder's Court— the court hearing all criminal cases in the city. For the first time, Detroit had a courtroom where Black litigants knew they would be treated fairly. In 1969, the New Bethel Church Incident was Crockett's most famous case. He held court proceeding in the police station itself, freeing members of a Black nationalist group who had been illegally arrested. In 1980, he was elected to the United States Congress where he spent a decade fighting President Reagan's agenda, as well as working to end Apartheid in South Africa and championing the cause to free Nelson Mandela. Crockett spent his life fighting racism and defending the constitutional rights of the oppressed and now this audiobook introduces him to a new generation of readers, historians, and social justice activists."

Edward J Littlejohn (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Ain't No Sunshine: The Smooth Soul and Rough Edges of Bill Withers

"The first biography of Bill Withers, the most accidental music supernova, who walked away from fame and never looked back. Bill Withers entered the music fray as hardly an afterthought, rewrote the rules for a decade, earned a fortune, then, unable to square himself with the requisites of the music business, took his leave. When he died in 2019 at eighty-one, he was every bit the mystery he was when he started. Born and raised in Slab Fork, West Virginia—his father a coal miner, his childhood spent in a pit of racism, and a shy kid who was asthmatic and stuttered—Withers had every reason to say, “People ask what are the blues. Hell, I was the blues!” His adulthood was spent running away from Slab Fork as a navy enlistee who worked military-related jobs, including making toilets for 747s. Music was a fantasy, ruled by unscrupulous brokers whom he thought he would never be able to live easily with. When he sang of calling on a “lonely brother” in “Lean on Me,” his biggest hit and an astounding feast for the ears, few knew that he was singing about himself. He was the lonely brother, and the business whose audio rules he refashioned only made him lonelier. His songs were not riling, but easing and caressing the deepest of emotional clefts that bore the weight of the world and the reassurance of a better day on his shoulders—“Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Lean on Me,” “Use Me,” “Lovely Day,” “Just the Two of Us”—as well as album cuts that leaped off the vinyl and helped form a coterie of evergreens among his fans. Yet he ruled in his precious fold of time—eight years in the sun—without as much as an agent, manager, lawyer, accountant, valet, or flunky. He was on his own in every way. This is the craziest success story music has known—a whirlwind that didn’t begin until Withers was in his thirties and carried on as if in neat slow-motion. Now, in this remarkable biography by acclaimed author Mark Ribowsky, Withers is brought to life in vivid detail, told with insights from those who knew him throughout his short but incredibly impactful career."

Mark Ribowsky (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

An Impossible Return: A Novel

"Winner of the Prix Maison de la Presse An epic love story set against a backdrop of injustice, devastating secrets, and the painful price of independence. It’s 1967 in the Chagos Archipelago—a group of atolls in the Indian Ocean—and life is peaceful and easy for hardworking Marie. Her fierce independence and love for her home are quickly apparent to Gabriel, the handsome and sophisticated Mauritian secretary to the archipelago’s administrator; it’s love at first sight. As these two lovers from neighboring islands welcome a new son, Joséphin, a bright future seems possible. But Gabriel is hiding a terrible secret. The Mauritian government is negotiating independence from Britain, and this deal with the devil will mean evacuating the Chagos, without warning or mercy—a betrayal that will put their love to the test. Inspired by a shocking travesty of justice, the repercussions of which still reverberate more than fifty years later, bestselling Franco-Mauritian author Caroline Laurent paints a shimmering portrait of island life, a sensual paradise lost, and a gorgeous star-crossed love against all odds."

Caroline Laurent (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Black Moses: The Hot-Buttered Life and Soul of Isaac Hayes

"The first biography of soul pioneer Isaac Hayes, whose groundbreaking music provided the foundation for hip-hop and a new racial paradigm. Within the stoned soul picnic of Black music icons in the ’60s and ’70s, only one could bill himself without a blush as Moses, demanding liberation for Black men with his notions of life and self—Isaac Lee Hayes Jr., the beautifully sheen, shaded, and chain-spangled acolyte of cool, whose high-toned “lounge music” and proto-rap was soul’s highest order—heard on twenty-two albums and selling millions of records. Hayes’s stunning self-portraits, his obsessive pleas about love, sex, and guilt bathed in lush orchestral flights and soul-stirring bass lines, drove other soul men like Barry White to libidinous license. But Hayes, who called himself a “renegade,” was a man of many parts. While he thrived on soulful remakes of pop standards, his biggest coup was writing and producing the epic soundtrack to Shaft, memorializing the “black private dick” as a “complicated man,” as coolly mean and amoral as any white private eye. This new musical and cultural coda delivered Hayes the first Oscar ever won by a Black musician, as well as the Grammy for Best Song. Yet, few know Hayes’s remarkable achievements. In this compelling buffet of sight and sound, acclaimed music biographer Mark Ribowsky—who has authored illuminating portraits of such luminaries as Stevie Wonder, Little Richard, and Otis Redding—gallops through the many stages of Hayes’s daring and daunting life, starting with Hayes’s difficult childhood in which his mother died young and his father abandoned him. Ribowsky then takes readers through Hayes’s rise at Memphis’s legendary soul factory, Stax Records, first as a piano player on Otis Redding sessions then as a songwriter and producer teamed with David Porter. Tuned to the context of soul music history, he created crossover smashes like Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man,” “Hold on I’m Comin’,” and “I Thank You,” making soul a semi-religion of Black pride, imagination, and joyful emotion. Hayes’s subsequent career as a solo artist featured studio methods and out-of-the-box ideas that paved the way for soul to occupy the top of the album charts alongside white rock albums. But his prime years ended prematurely, both as a consequence of Stax’s red ink and his own self-destructive tendencies. In the ’90s he claimed he had finally found himself, as a minion of Scientology. But Scientology would cost him the gig that had revived him—the cartoon voice of the naively cool “Chef” on South Park—after he became embroiled in controversy when South Park’s creators parodied Scientology in an episode that caused the cult’s leaders to order him to quit the show. Although Hayes was honored by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, the brouhaha came as his seemingly perfect body finally broke down. He died in 2008 at age sixty-eight, too soon for a soul titan. But if only greatness can establish permanence in the cellular structure of music, Isaac Hayes long ago qualified. His influence will last for as long as there is music to be heard. And when we hear him in that music, we will by rote say, “We can dig it.”"

Mark Ribowsky (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Empowering Black Boys to Challenge Rape Culture

"Gordon Braxton was in his second year of college before anybody bothered to speak to him about sexual violence, despite the fact that he already knew friends and family members that had survived sexual assault. Unfortunately, this is a common experience as many young men and boys, especially Black boys, do not have an opportunity to discuss their views on sexual violence and what role they might play in preventing it. Empowering Black Boys to Challenge Rape Culture supports the training of a rising generation by providing commentary from an experienced educator, an overview of existing research and preventative techniques, and insight into young men’s perspectives on violence. The result is a powerful new perspective on violence prevention—the first to focus on Black boys and to be written by a Black male author. The most critical lesson that boys need to learn is that they have an essential role to play in preventing sexual violence. So many of them accept this violence as beyond their control when they could be valuable agents of change. More and more parents and mentors of boys are coming to address sexual violence as a cultural problem rather than the activities of isolated social deviants. Empowering Black Boys to Challenge Rape Culture adds an important voice to our discussions about sexual violence education and prevention, showing that a rising generation of boys will play a vital part in realizing a non-violent future."

Gordon Braxton (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

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Garvey and Garveyism

"Like all great dreamers and planners, Marcus Garvey dreamed and planned ahead of his time and his peoples' ability to understand the significance of his life's work. A set of circumstances, mostly created by the world colonial powers, crushed this dreamer, but not his dreams. Due to persistence and years of sacrifice of Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey, widow of Marcus Garvey, a large body of work by and about this great nationalist leader has been preserved and can be made available to a new generation of Black people who have the power to turn his dreams into realities. Written as a participant and confidant, Amy Jacques Garvey's perspective continues to provide an intimate and first-person narrative of the Garvey movement and this important nascent period of Black Nationalism."

Amy Jacques Garvey (Author), Beresford Bennett, Karen Chilton (Narrator)

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Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Im

"'This book has the important element that is missing in most of the books and articles on Garvey—a political analysis of what the Garvey Movement was about.'—John Henrik Clarke, The Black Scholar A classic study of the Garvey movement, this is the most thoroughly researched book on Garvey's ideas by a historian of black nationalism."

Tony Martin (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Sometimes Farmgirls Become Revolutionaries: Florence Tate on Black Power, Black Politics and the FBI

"Sometimes Farmgirls Become Revolutionaries is the story of an unsung civil rights organizer, Black Power activist, and barrier-breaking Black woman, Florence Louise Tate (1931–2014). Tate was close to the young leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She became a mentor, a mother-of-themovement, and a target of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Tate defied stereotypes of the 1960s, playing key roles in the lives and work of an astonishing number of high-profile leaders of the most influential social-change organizations and events of the twentieth century. She also worked with numerous Black Nationalist leaders and Pan-African activists, US politicians, and members of the Congressional Black Caucus. She was close to Marion Barry and Jesse Jackson, serving both men as press secretary. An accomplished activist, most people never knew that Tate was bravely fighting chronic depression. She endured years of electroconvulsive shock treatments and therapy to live a full life, contribute to her community, fight for human and civil rights, and be available to her family. Farmgirls is an engaging collage of Tate’s life, woven together from her journal entries, memories from people who knew her, and excerpts from her FBI files. These multiple perspectives bring into focus the complex and complicated saga of a public persona engaged in private struggle, defying and overcoming the odds."

Florence Tate, Jake-Ann Jones (Author), Beresford Bennett, Kim Staunton (Narrator)

Audiobook

Fighting Time

"Unaware of the danger lurking on the periphery of the French Quarter, Drs. Ronald Banks and John Hakola made a tragic decision on the evening of April 29, 1979, to walk several blocks from the historic district to the Hyatt Regency. Inches from the safety of their hotel, they were accosted by two young men—a scuffle ensued, a shot was fired, and Dr. Banks lay dead on the sidewalk. Fighting Time is a tale of two families whose lives became entangled in that moment of trauma. Isaac Knapper, a sixteen-year-old boy from a nearby housing project, was wrongfully convicted of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. In Maine, the Banks family believed justice had been served by Isaac’s conviction, and his exoneration in 1992 unleashed a sea of confusion and grief. In 2015, Dr. Banks’ daughter, Amy, a psychiatrist and trauma specialist, realized it was time to unpack her own family trauma. After learning details of the prosecutorial misconduct, Amy and her sister, Nancy, traveled to New Orleans to meet the man wrongfully convicted of killing their father. In Fighting Time Isaac Knapper and Amy Banks narrate the story of their thirty-sixyear journey from murder to meeting with clarity, humility, and vulnerability."

Amy Banks, Isaac Knapper (Author), Beresford Bennett, Christina Moore (Narrator)

Audiobook

Getting Something to Eat in Jackson: Race, Class, and Food in the America South

"A people-driven ethnography that portrays how race, particularly Blackness, is experienced and performed in different socioeconomic contexts in the contemporary urban American South. There once was a time when Black Americans up and down the socioeconomic ladder lived in and around the same neighborhoods. Part of this was a consequence of racially discriminatory federal, state, and city housing policies, such as exclusionary Federal Housing Authority practices and racially restrictive deeds and covenants, which prevented those who had the financial means from living anywhere else. Today, many of these neighborhoods are now centers of concentrated poverty. The ones who are able have left; those who remain do so only with others who are poor like them and are unable to leave. Getting Something to Eat in Jackson, a people-driven ethnography, portrays how race, particularly Blackness, is experienced and performed in different socioeconomic contexts in the contemporary urban American South. The author argues that Black American life is splintered along class lines, using food and eating as a thread as he is moving through the various socioeconomic groups. This book’s overarching goal is to illustrate that there is a paradox in social mobility for Black Americans. On the one hand, the upwardly mobile enjoy some socioeconomic gains, but they never escape neighborhoods because their very sense of self is tied to Blacks in poverty. On the other hand, the ones who are left behind bear the harshest brunt of nearly all measures of inequality in the country, but they retain the symbolisms of Blackness. The book challenges persistent homogenizations of Blackness, draw out the consequences for continuing to do so, and point to the usefulness of recognizing class variation in Black American life."

Joseph C. Ewoodzie Jr. (Author), Beresford Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Beresford Bennett