Broadside Press

The Broadside Press was founded in Detroit, Michigan, in 1965 and lasted until 1977, effectively encompassing the early phase of the Black Studies movement. The objective of the press was to publish the writings, particularly the poetry, of new black writers. Founded with only $12 by celebrated African-American poet, librarian, and publisher Dudley Felker Randall (1914–2000), the Broadside Press was a medium for the publication of poems and other writings of black writers, thus giving voice to an entire generation of African American authors. It published books at affordable prices, as well as the individual poems printed on a single sheet of paper that are known as broadsides. One such broadside is “Ballad of Birmingham” (1969), a poem Randall wrote on the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama. He published it on a broadside sheet and called it a Broadside Press publication to protect his copyright. Indeed, during the 12 year span of its existence, the Broadside Press published 90 titles of poetry and had 500,000 books in print, making it one of the most prolific black commercial book publishing companies in the United States.

Unfortunately, late in 1975 the firm experienced some financial problems, as a result of which it stopped publishing books. In 1977 Randall sold the press to an Episcopal Church, the Alexander Crummell Memorial Center, to pay his debts. Even though Randall had to sell the press, he still managed to hold onto much of his vision, and he remained with the company as an editorial consultant.

Although Broadside Press published books in various categories—literary criticism, plays, autobiographies, collective biographies, picture books, and story books—the primary objective of the company was to publish black poetry, as Randall had contended from the beginning. Randall did not lock himself into any rigid ideology as manager of the Broadside Press, but he did have certain proclivities. He wanted to publish poetry, and he did. Among the many books of poetry published by Broadside Press were Poem Counterpoem (1966) by Dudley Randall and Margaret Danner; Cities Burning (1968) by Dudley Randall; [Page 171]Think Black (1967), Black Pride (1968), and Don't Cry, Scream (1970) by Haki R. Madhubuti; Black Judgement (1968), Black Feeling, Black Talk (1970), and Re-Creation (1970) by Nikki Giovanni; We A BaddDDD People (1970) by Sonia Sanchez; and The Last Ride of Wild Bill (1974) by Sterling Brown.

Other black authors whose works—adult nonfiction, juvenile nonfiction, and juvenile fiction—were published by Broadside Press include, inter alia, James Andrew Randall, Jr., John Clayton Randall, Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Addison Gayle, Margaret Walker, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Langston Hughes, Frenchy Jolene Hodges, Mae Jackson, Etheridge Knight, Gwendolyn Thompson, Habte Wolde, Audre Lorde, George Barlow, Henry Blakely, Juddy Simmons, Regina O' Neal, Lyn Levy, Leaonead Pack Bailey, Arna Wendell Bontemps, and Nicolas Guillen. The press best represented the period of the black arts movement by publishing the revolutionary artists whose work often would not be published by the major American publishers. Broadside Press inspired young authors to write, contributing perhaps more than any Black-owned and Black-operated publishing firm of its time to the literary development of African American talents.

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