Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class

Historian Kelley (director, Ctr. for the Study of the American South at the Univ. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Right To Ride) offers a deeply researched chronicle of the Black working class in the United States; it was a Smithsonian magazine best book of 2023. Drawing upon her own family history, Kelley shares the many stories of people comprising the Black working class, a group she considers the nation’s “most active, most engaged, most informed, and most impassioned working class.” Spanning two centuries, beginning with Henry, her earliest known enslaved ancestor, Kelley tells the stories of Black laundresses, Pullman porters, domestic maids, postal workers, factory workers, and more. She traces the lineage of the Duncan, Raeford, and McCracken families, who migrated through Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina, and Maryland, working for little pay as they hoped for a better future. Anika Noni Rose narrates, sensitively performing Kelley’s book with her melodic, captivating voice. Rose’s eloquent narration pays homage to the many hardworking people Kelley illuminates. Listeners will be riveted by this incisive, deeply affecting account.