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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of african american short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

810+ African american Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Whether you want to read about African American author's hopes and resilience or their unique struggles, you'll find what you're looking for here.

African american Short Stories – Page 3 of 55

It Never Made A Difference

Submitted to Contest #289

Elisha sat on the porch eating vanilla ice cream with her little sisters. She liked to take her time and savor the taste of the smooth, silky cream sliding down her throat. But her favorite part was when the ice cream settled in the bottom of the cone. When she bit into it, that vanilla goodness shot all through her mouth, and the cone remained crunchy to the end. That was one of the many treats they had in the summertime. It was a nice, warm, sunny day, and they were sure to enjoy it.  The girls lived in a nice house with their grandpa...

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Wake the Sleeping Dog

Submitted to Contest #289

Sometimes reconnecting with long lost friends leads to rousing a sleeping dog. Whether it wanted to be woken up was another matter, especially if it was woken up by the person who abandoned it. Michelle’s attention diverted from her friend, Angel, in the passenger seat, as a familiar hulking figure walking a pit bull up came into view. The last few sentences of Angel’s conversation fragmented into meaninglessness the closer they got to the dogwalker. As going over a yellow speed bump jostled the car, Michelle’s stomach lurched, her jaw set d...

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Tea, No Sympathy

Submitted to Contest #287

Peace Officer English stepped off his horse and greeted the men. He winked. “Well let me guess which one of you gentlemen I’m taking in”. The men laughed. Three of the four stood up to greet him. The other man, the only white man in the bunch, remained seated. Not because he was rude, though he was, or prejudiced, though he was that too. He remained seated because both of his hands were cuffed to a wagon wheel that was hitched to one of the men’s horses.  Peace Officer English took and gave hearty handshakes to the three ...

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Starting over

Submitted to Contest #287

It was morning. The sun pierced through the dusty, and bare white blinds right into her swollen eyes. Another night of bawling. She breathed in deeply and let out a deep and slow sigh. ‘What time is it? I’m going to be late…’ She thought as she sluggishly inched around in her bed. ‘Wait… oh yeah… I have nowhere to go anymore.’ She closed her eyes tightly, holding back more tears. She hid her head underneath her comforter and laid there. She would cry, come from underneath her comforter for air, silently stare at the dust ...

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The Tea Teacher

Submitted to Contest #287

The sun hung heavy in the sky, its blistering rays casting long shadows across the dry, cracked earth. The village seemed suspended in time, far from the world I knew. The small school I had been assigned to sit isolated, far from the nearest source of clean water. The only water available came from a muddy pond that the villagers boiled before drinking. The other teachers had grown accustomed to it, their families had adapted, but I couldn’t. The sight of it made my stomach churn.I packed my bags and headed back to my hometown, seeking advi...

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In My Sister's Shoes

Submitted to Contest #287

Edie bit her bottom lip, her eyes darting over the metal keyboard panel beside the door, fingers trembling as she punched in the seven-digit code. She'd already called the police twice since starting at Pilgrim's Loan Bureau, and each time, the pregnant office manager, Michaela, had been summoned. Another call would mean blowing up her temp spot, and Edie couldn’t afford that—she wanted a permanent position. When the door finally clicked and the lock released, a shudder of relief rippled through her, though the tension still coiled in her ch...

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MARY DID YOU KNOW?

Submitted to Contest #287

Trigger Warning: Some use of ProfanityMary Anne Lesure fixed her black curls and fluffed her bosom in the mirror. She twirled around in the center of her bedroom watching her dress flail open like a parachute. She was wearing her favorite powder blue satin dress with pearl buttons and matching collar broach. It complemented her golden skin very well. She had it paired with flesh tone stockings, and very demure satin Mary Jane heels she had professionally dyed to match her dress. She blew herself a kiss with her ruby red lips. She walked...

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(African) American Gothic

Submitted to Contest #286

Trigger warning: this story contains themes of suicide and mental health. Two plates sit untouched at the head of the dining room table. Gramee and Grandpy stare at me, eyes stern, hollow. Gramee has her signature black dress with the white scalloped collar, Grandpy at her side with overalls under a dinner jacket. They have the same square glasses, silver and glaring. “Do you want to live here with me?” They don’t answer. I sigh, scraping carrots around on my plate. “Look, I know our cousin’s got the bigger house with the pool and every...

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Gundle's Joy

Submitted to Contest #286

My friend, Gundle, was real/not real but still more fun than anyone else I knew. We met when Dad and I moved to Westside. On our first day in the new house dad saw me crying in my bedroom and sat down next to me.“What’s the matter, Jamie?”“I miss mom, I wish she was here with us.”Dad stared at the picture of the three of us that was next to my bed.“I miss her too, keep praying she will get better and join us. She is doing the right thing getting help. When she comes back we can have some more adventures. Meanwhile, it’s me and you, and ...

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My Friend Freddy

Submitted to Contest #287

MY FRIEND, FREDDYA true story The year was 2009 and Janet Napolitano was Governor of Arizona. The political buzz was that she wasn’t doing a good job of managing the state’s financial affairs and Arizona was going bankrupt. This was cause and concern for individuals and companies, which included myself and the company I worked for. My company was contracted through the state with Child Protective Services and since the state was supposedly going broke, my co-workers and I were all advised to look for other jobs and, in the meantime, don’t bu...

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Frederik's Room

Submitted to Contest #286

It has been two weeks since the funeral. Now all that was left was a skeleton of a home. The ghastly white sky perfectly mirrors the experience of the inside. Moving boxes for one and dishes that need to be washed for the other. Both preparing for a life without him.  Patrick shifted his boxes from his room to the downstairs foyer. These were the last remaining semblances of the life he had with them.  His soon-to-be ex-wife Loretta washed her mug in the kitchen. Doing her best to avoid contact with the man who was once the love of...

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When Love Becomes A Cage

Submitted to Contest #286

Brandon was trapped in a marriage that felt like a prison, a brutal relationship he had tried countless times to leave behind. Emma, his wife of four years, refused to let him go. Every attempt to leave ended with threats—child support, court battles, and taking everything he had worked so hard to build.Brandon had poured his soul into building his business from the ground up, and the thought of losing it made him feel as though his life’s work would be stripped away. He tried again and again to reason with Emma, to work out a fair plan, but...

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The Book

Submitted to Contest #286

“There are few things in life that can bring you closer to your personal history,” Thomas Buckeye told the class. He picked up a book of poetry and held it high. Every member of the class stared at the book.“This has been passed down in my family since it was published in 1773. I would love to say the author, Phillis Wheatley, was a relative or at least a part of my lineage, but the only relation to me was the fact we shared a heart.”Thom paused briefly and continued, “Who enjoys reading poetry?”Half the class raised a hand, a few tentativel...

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Dreams in a Suitcase

Submitted to Contest #286

Ahmed always dreamed of becoming a doctor. As a child, he spent hours daydreaming about wearing a white coat and helping people. He promised himself that one day he would put himself through school and become the first in his family to truly make something of himself.For most of his life, Ahmed had been bounced from one family member’s home to another. His mother, caught in the streets, spent much of her time hustling or serving short stints in jail. His father? He was just a name Ahmed had never met. But Ahmed knew from an early age that he...

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Time After Time

Submitted to Contest #285

The phone rings – Brrrrrrinnnnggg. Brrrrinnnngggg“Hello?”“Chanel. Can you hear me? It’s ME. Nese!”“Hold on. You don’t have to shout.”“Wait. Is that Michael Jackson’s Lady in My Life?”“Yep”“I gotta get that album. I love that song”“It’s a good one.”“I thought you got it when you brought the two posters for your wall.”“Nope. Mom and I took the bus to Getty Square to get our Saturdays pizza. I waited in line at that record store for almost an hour. By time the man in front of me reached the counter, Mr. T, the store owner yelled, ‘SOLD OUT. No ...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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