Black Classic Press
 | |
| Status | Active |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1978 |
| Founder | W. Paul Coates |
| Distribution | Publishers Group West |
| Fiction genres | Non-fiction and Fiction |
| Imprints | Black Classic Press, W.M. DuForcelf, INPRINT EDITIONS |
Black Classic Press is an African-American book publishing company.
History
W. Paul Coates founded Black Classic Press in 1978 in Baltimore, Maryland.[1] The company is one of the oldest independently owned Black publishers in operation in the United States.
The primary mission of the press is to publish obscure and significant books by and about people of African descent. John G. Jackson, John Henrik Clarke, and Yosef ben-Jochannan were major influences in defining the mission and early direction of the press.[2] The company publishes about six titles annually; most are out-of-print historical books that the company brings back into print.
The first books published by the company were pamphlets printed on a photocopier that Coates purchased. Along this same vein, Coates established BCP Digital Printing in 1995 as an affiliated company of Black Classic Press. The printing company, a million-dollar business, serves as the printer for the publishing company as well as companies and organizations in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area.
Imprints
Black Classic Press has used three imprints: Black Classic Press, W.M. DuForcelf and INPRINT EDITIONS. The Black Classic Press imprint is primarily for the company's historical reprints that deal with the African diaspora. The W.M. DuForcelf imprint, under which no new titles have been published since 1994, was both a statement and a call for self-sufficiency in the African American community. INPRINT EDITIONS principally serves academic books and titles that fall outside the primary mission of Black Classic Press list.
Notable authors and titles published by Black Classic Press
- Walter Mosley - The press gained national attention in 1996 when best-selling author Walter Mosley chose Black Classic Press to publish Gone Fishin' (1997), the prequel to his popular Easy Rawlins mysteries. Mosley decided to publish a book with a small Black publishing house because he felt it was important "to create a model that other writers, black or not, can look at to see that it's possible to publish a book successfully outside mainstream publishing in New York."[3] The result was so successful that in 2003 the press collaborated again with Mosley to publish What Next: An African American Initiative Toward World Peace (2003), part memoir and part call to action for African Americans after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. The Tempest Tales (2008), Mosley's homage to Langston Hughes' character Jesse B. Semple, was the third collaboration between Mosley and Black Classic Press.
- Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal (eds) - Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing [1968] (2007)
- Neil Baldwin - To All Gentleness: William Carlos Williams, The Doctor Poet (2008)
- Yosef ben-Jochannan - A Chronology of the Bible [1972] (1996); We the Black Jews (1996); Africa: Mother of Western Civilization (1988); Cultural Genocide in the Black and African Studies Curriculum (2004); African Origins of the Major "Western Religions" [1970] (1991); Black Man of the Nile [1972] (1989); Understanding the African Philosophical Concept Behind the "Diagram of the Law of Opposites" (2005); Our Black Seminarians and Black Clergy Without a Black Theology (1996); The Need for a Black Bible (1996); The Black Man's North and East Africa (2005); The Myth of Genesis and Exodus (1991).
- Edward Wilmot Blyden - Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race; The Aims and Methods of A Liberal Education: Inaugural Address [1888] (1994).
- W.E.B. DuBois - The Negro [1915] (2005)
- Ralph Ginzburg - 100 Years of Lynchings [1962] (1988)
- Charles Jones - The Black Panther Party: Reconsidered (1998)
- Reginald F. Lewis - Why Should White Guys Have all the Fun?: How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion Dollar Business Empire (2005)
- E. Ethelbert Miller - First Light (1994); Whispers, Secrets and Promises (1998); Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century (ed.; 2002)
- Dorothy Porter (with Constance Porter Uzelac, eds)- Early Negro Writing, 1760-1837 (1995); William Cooper Nell: Selected Writings, 1832-1874 (2002)
- J. A. Rogers - Your History: From the Beginning of Time to the Present [1940] (1983); As Nature Leads [1919] (1987)
- Bobby Seale - Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton [1970] (1991)
- David Walker - David Walker's Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World [1829] (1993)
References
- ↑ "Black History Month & Baltimore's Black History". Baltimore.org. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
- ↑ "Black Classic Books About Us". Blackclassicbooks.com. Retrieved 2012-05-20.
- ↑ "NOW with Bill Moyers. Arts & Culture. Walter Mosley Bibliography". NOW with Bill Moyers. PBS. 2003-09-06. Retrieved 2012-05-20.