OUR COMMON GROUND with Janice Graham  Black Suicide - a podcast by OCG

Breaking the Silence on Black Suicide

Guest: Amy L. Alexander, co-author, Lay My Burden Down: Unraveling Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African-Americans


Amy Lynn Alexander writes and produces news, analysis, and commentary. Her work has appeared in print and broadcast outlets nationwide, including The Washington Post, National Public Radio, TheRoot.com, and The Nation.

She is author of three nonfiction books, including the bestseller, Fifty Black Women Who Changed America; and Lay My Burden Down: Unraveling Suicide and the Mental Health Crisis Among African-Americans, co-authored with Alvin. F. Poussaint, M.D.



Her next book, Minority Opinion: A Story of Race, Media, and Reinvention (Beacon Press), will be published January 2010.


Black suicide, which was once considered an oxymoron, has become an unfortunate reality. No longer so, and we mostly don’t want to talk about it; we hide it inside the pages of our Bibles and Qurans; and walk away hoping that he/she really doesn’t mean that.


Black leaders and parents still operate under the notion that black youths just don't commit suicide. But new data show that isn't true, and the sooner black communities overcome their denial, the better.

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