Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South
    The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South
    The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South

    Written by Chip Jones

    Narrated by JD Jackson

    4.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks meets Get Out in this “startling…powerful” (Kirkus Reviews) investigation of racial inequality at the core of the heart transplant race.

    In 1968, Bruce Tucker, a black man, went into Virginia’s top research hospital with a head injury, only to have his heart taken out of his body and put into the chest of a white businessman. Now, in The Organ Thieves, Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist Chip Jones exposes the horrifying inequality surrounding Tucker’s death and how he was used as a human guinea pig without his family’s permission or knowledge.

    The circumstances surrounding his death reflect the long legacy of mistreating African Americans that began more than a century before with cadaver harvesting and worse. It culminated in efforts to win the heart transplant race in the late 1960s. Featuring years of research and fresh reporting, along with a foreword from social justice activist Ben Jealous, “this powerful book weaves together a medical mystery, a legal drama, and a sweeping history, its characters confronting unprecedented issues of life and death under the shadows of centuries of racial injustice” (Edward L. Ayers, author of The Promise of the New South).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateAug 18, 2020
    ISBN9781797108308
    Author

    Chip Jones

    Chip Jones has been reporting for nearly thirty years for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Roanoke Times, Virginia Business magazine, and other publications. As a reporter for The Roanoke Times, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his work on the Pittston coal strike. He is the former communications director of the Richmond Academy of Medicine, which is where he first discovered the heart-stopping story in The Organ Thieves, now the winner of the Library of Virginia’s Literary Award for Nonfiction. It has become an invaluable resource for medical schools and other organizations exploring the history of racism and current inequities in America’s healthcare system. For more, visit ChipJonesBooks.com.

    Related to The Organ Thieves

    Related audiobooks

    African American History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      'The Cadaver King And The Country Dentist' Will Shake Your Faith In The US Justice System

      Feb 28, 2018

      The authors focus on the wrongful convictions of two black men, Levon Brooks and Kennedy Brewer, each charged in separate murders during the early 1990s in Mississippi.

      3 min read

    • Article

      'The Reformatory' Tells A Story Of Ghosts, Abuse, Racism — And Sibling Love

      Nov 2, 2023

      Tananarive Due's haunting, unflinching novel delves deep into the realities of the Jim Crow South and the very real horrors that took place at Florida reformatory schools in the 1950s.

      3 min read

    • Article

      David Treuer

      Feb 4, 2019

      The Ojibwe writer on Elizabeth Warren, the problem with tragedy, and his new book, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee

      2 min read

    • Article

      Some People Just Don't Matter Much

      May 8, 2019

      There are people who do not matter much. That's a painful truth, starkly at odds with our Jeffersonian creed and national mythology. But it is a truth, nevertheless, one frequently proven in actions if denied in words. In this country, by dint of rac

      2 min read

    • Article

      Robin’s Wish Director: ‘Robin Williams’ Death Proved We Need A Protocol For Celebrity Suicides’

      Jan 13, 2021

      Robin Williams was everything you hoped he’d be,” says Tylor Norwood. “That was the word around town before I started this project – he is literally that guy.” Norwood is a documentary filmmaker whose latest project, Robin’s Wish, offers an eye-openi

      5 min read

    • Article

      Fragile Evidence

      Nov 1, 2021

      In 2008, just after college, I spent the summer traveling across Texas in a midnight-blue Corolla with a crooked “Yes We Can!” Obama bumper sticker. I’d been hired by a new organization called the Texas After Violence Project, founded by Walter Long,

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Survivor Vote

      Oct 17, 2022

      The Survivor Vote
      3 min read

    • Article

      Remembering Lost Loved Ones

      Apr 16, 2022

      Remembering Lost Loved Ones
      8 min read

    • Article

      She Sentenced a Man to Death, and Now Must Live With It

      Sep 15, 2017

      "Lindy Lou, Juror Number 2" is one of the most sobering and powerful documentaries about a political issue I've seen in years. It's no Michael Moore-style propaganda film. Nor are the sing-song title and the fact that it was produced by a French comp

      3 min read

    • Article

      Witnesses To The Execution

      Jul 24, 2020

      An oral history of the first federal execution under Donald Trump, as told by victims’ relatives, prison staff, and others.

      12 min read

    • Article

      Surviving a SERIAL KILLER

      Feb 9, 2021

      More than ever, we seem to be fascinated with true crime. There are at least three dedicated true-crime TV channels in the UK, reaching over five million people a month, and that’s before you even begin to browse through streaming services. We know t

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Organ Thieves

    4.5/5

    25 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Although this book is long, it is an amazing story in my opinion. The author wears many hats during it. From detailing the medical history and legal complexities; to providing descriptions and building seemingly personal connections with a multitude of characters. I enjoyed all of it and learned quite a bit.

      1 person found this helpful