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Curated playlist

African-American non-fiction writers

  • Barack ObamaObama rejected a plan to bomb a compound in Pakistan and sent Navy SEALs instead. The 2011 raid killed Osama bin Laden.
  • Jay-ZNo major label would sign Jay-Z, so he sold burned CDs out of his car.
  • Martin Luther King Jr.Martin Luther King Jr. died at the age of 39, yet his autopsy showed the heart of a 60 year old, according to his biographer Taylor Branch. Branch attributed the damage to stress. The causes were many. King was jailed repeatedly, attacked…
  • Clarence ThomasClarence Thomas was born on the 23rd of June 1948 in a wooden shack in Pin Point, Georgia. Nothing about that tiny dwelling suggested a seat at the highest court in the land. Since 1991 he has sat on the Supreme Court of the United States,…
  • Malcolm XMalcolm X left the Nation of Islam in 1964 and flew to Mecca. There he saw Muslims of all colors treated as equals.
  • Common (rapper)Common is an American rapper, actor and activist, born Lonnie Rashid Lynn, and his shelf of awards crosses three industries. He has won three Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. He signed with…
  • Tupac ShakurTupac Shakur wrote and recorded the album The Don Killuminati in three days. Mixing took four more.
  • Rashida JonesRashida Jones was still a teenager in 1994 when she answered one of the best-known rappers in America in print. Tupac Shakur had made scathing remarks in The Source about her parents' interracial marriage. Her open letter in reply drew…
  • Russell SimmonsRussell Simmons said a 1977 Harlem rap show was "the invention of the wheel." He went on to build Def Jam and Phat Farm.
  • Kareem Abdul-JabbarKareem Abdul-Jabbar broke Wilt Chamberlain's career scoring record with a skyhook over a 7-foot-4 defender.

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