Three Girls from Bronzeville: A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood
Written by Dawn Turner
Narrated by Janina Edwards
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
A Best Book of 2021 by BuzzFeed and Real Simple
An “unmissable” (Vogue), “exceptional” (The Washington Post), and “evocative” (Chicago Tribune) memoir about three Black girls from the storied Bronzeville section of Chicago that offers a penetrating exploration of race, opportunity, friendship, sisterhood, and the powerful forces at work that allow some to flourish…and others to falter.
They were three Black girls. Dawn, tall and studious; her sister, Kim, younger by three years and headstrong as they come; and her best friend, Debra, already prom-queen pretty by third grade. They bonded—fervently and intensely in that unique way of little girls—as they roamed the concrete landscape of Bronzeville, a historic neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, the destination of hundreds of thousands of Black folks who fled the ravages of the Jim Crow South.
These third-generation daughters of the Great Migration come of age in the 1970s, in the warm glow of the recent civil rights movement. It has offered them a promise, albeit nascent and fragile, that they will have more opportunities, rights, and freedoms than any generation of Black Americans in history. Their working-class, striving parents are eager for them to realize this hard-fought potential. But the girls have much more immediate concerns: hiding under the dining room table and eavesdropping on grown folks’ business; collecting secret treasures; and daydreaming about their futures—Dawn and Debra, doctors, Kim a teacher. For a brief, wondrous moment the girls are all giggles and dreams and promises of “friends forever.” And then fate intervenes, first slowly and then dramatically, sending them careening in wildly different directions. There’s heartbreak, loss, displacement, and even murder. Dawn struggles to make sense of the shocking turns that consume her sister and her best friend, all the while asking herself a simple but profound question: Why?
In the vein of The Other Wes Moore and The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace, Three Girls from Bronzeville is a “deeply personal” (Real Simple) memoir that chronicles Dawn’s attempt to find answers. It’s at once a celebration of sisterhood and friendship, a testimony to the unique struggles of Black women, and a tour-de-force about the complex interplay of race, class, and opportunity, and how those forces shape our lives and our capacity for resilience and redemption.
Editor's Note
Thought-provoking page-turner…
Heartbreaking and inspiring, Turner’s memoir explores the power of friendship and the inequality of opportunity. Three Black girls grow up the best of friends on Chicago’s South Side in the 1970s, but their paths split in dramatically (and tragically) different directions in this thought-provoking page-turner.
Dawn Turner
Dawn Turner is an award-winning journalist and novelist. A former columnist and reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Turner spent a decade and a half writing about race, politics, and people whose stories are often dismissed and ignored. Turner, who served as a 2017 and 2018 juror for the Pulitzer Prize in commentary, has written commentary for The Washington Post, PBS NewsHour, CBS Sunday Morning News show, NPR’s Morning Edition show, the Chicago Tonight show, and elsewhere. She has covered national presidential conventions, as well as Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential election and inauguration. Turner has been a regular commentator for several national and international news programs, and has reported from around the world in countries such as Australia, China, France, and Ghana. She spent the 2014–2015 school year as a Nieman Journalism fellow at Harvard University. In 2018, she served as a fellow and journalist-in-residence at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. Turner is the author of two novels, Only Twice I’ve Wished for Heaven and An Eighth of August. In 2018, she established the Dawn M. Turner and Kim D. Turner Endowed Scholarship in Media at her alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Reviews for Three Girls from Bronzeville
76 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was an amazingly humbling and empowering read! I feel like I journeyed through Chicago’s south side with the 3 characters really learning so much rich and painful history. Thank you for this memoir!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent and well written story of life in the Midwest for African Americans.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book took me back to my days of growing up on the Southside of Chicago and being a first generation college graduate. Some friends "made it", while others were caught up in a system meant to grind them to death. Her intersectional journey is such a familiar blueprint to arriving at what sets our soul on fire!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very emotional book…. It kept me wanting to listen. I enjoyed it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent memoir! Highly recommended. Engaging and heart-breaking. A gripping story