Get 3 audiobooks free with a 30-Day Free Trial
Sign Up Free
Loading...
Welcome
Sign up
Login
Browse Books
Deals
VIP
Gifts
0
Loading...
Play Sample
Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance
Author:
Mark Whitaker
Read by:
Prentice Onayemi
Unabridged Audiobook
Listen Free Now
Listen free with a 30-day free trial
Choose 2 bonus VIP books
Enjoy 10,000 always free books
Add to Cart - $22.95
Remove from Cart
Give as a gift
Ratings
Book
3
Narrator
2
Release Date
January 30, 2018
Duration
13 hours 32 minutes
Summary
The other great Renaissance of black culture, influence, and glamour burst forth joyfully in what may seem an unlikely place—Pittsburgh, PA—from the 1920s through the 1950s.
Today black Pittsburgh is known as the setting for August Wilson’s famed plays about noble but doomed working-class strivers. But this community once had an impact on American history that rivaled the far larger black worlds of Harlem and Chicago. It published the most widely read black newspaper in the country, urging black voters to switch from the Republican to the Democratic Party and then rallying black support for World War II. It fielded two of the greatest baseball teams of the Negro Leagues and introduced Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Pittsburgh was the childhood home of jazz pioneers Billy Strayhorn, Billy Eckstine, Earl Hines, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner; Hall of Fame slugger Josh Gibson—and August Wilson himself. Some of the most glittering figures of the era were changed forever by the time they spent in the city, from Joe Louis and Satchel Paige to Duke Ellington and Lena Horne.
Mark Whitaker’s Smoketown is a captivating portrait of this unsung community and a vital addition to the story of black America. It depicts how ambitious Southern migrants were drawn to a steel-making city on a strategic river junction; how they were shaped by its schools and a spirit of commerce with roots in the Gilded Age; and how their world was eventually destroyed by industrial decline and urban renewal. Whitaker takes listeners on a rousing, revelatory journey—and offers a timely reminder that Black History is not all bleak.
Browse By Category
Biography & Memoir
>
History & Culture
History
>
The Americas
Reviews
Myrna W.
very informative
Smoketown: The Untold Story of the Other Great Black Renaissance
Author: Mark Whitaker
Read by: Prentice Onayemi
Listen Free Now
Get any book plus
2 bonus VIP books
1 book added to cart
Smoketown: The Untold Story of th...
Mark Whitaker
Subtotal
$22.95
View Cart
Continue Browsing
~~title~~
~~carousel-body~~
Back
Next
~~book-title~~
By: ~~author-single-string~~
~~tag-text~~
© Copyright 2011 - 2025 Storytel Audiobooks USA LLC. All Rights Reserved.