Spreading the Word

Whether cultural, political, social, or academic, the production of written texts by Black Power artists and activists was unprecedented. Periodicals, newspapers, books, publishing companies, and bookstores helped spread the Black Power message in all its diversity. The goal was to empower the community by providing historical knowledge, political and revolutionary awareness, and cultural pride.

To bring their message directly to the communities they served, organizations published their own newspapers. Various new journals were born. As expressions of the interconnectedness of Black Power and the Black Arts Movement, these publications were often literary and political, covered local and international issues, and presented poetry, short stories, and graphic arts. Small publishing companies from New York to Detroit and Durham to Chicago offered an outlet to poets, novelists, educators, scholars, and activists.

Black bookstores, such as the African National Memorial Book Store and Liberation Bookstore in Harlem, did more than sell books. Drum and Spear bookstore in Washington, DC added a publishing company, Drum and Spear Press, and a Center for Black Education to its activities. The bookstore also opened an office in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. These stores acted as cultural, political, educational, and social centers where the community could take classes, and meet authors, militants, and visiting activists from around the world. They became sites of education, creativity, and resistance.

Sylviane A. Diouf, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture