Herb Boyd is an awarding winning author and journalist who has published 17 books and countless articles for national magazines and newspapers.  Brotherman—The Odyssey of Black Men in America—An Anthology (One World/Ballantine, 1995), co-edited with Robert Allen of the Black Scholar journal, won the American Book Award for nonfiction. In 1999, Boyd won three first place awards from the New York Association of Black Journalists for his articles published in the Amsterdam News. Among his most popular books are Black Panthers for Beginners (Writers & Readers, 1995); Autobiography of a People—Three Centuries of African American History Told By Those Who Lived It (Doubleday, 2000); Race and Resistance—African Americans in the 21st Century (South End Press, 2002); The Harlem Reader (Crown Publishers, 2003); We Shall Overcome—A History of the Civil Rights Movement (Sourcebooks, 2004); and Pound for Pound—The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson (Amistad, 2005).

In 2006, Boyd worked with world music composer Yusef Lateef on his autobiography The Gentle Giant which was published by Morton Books of New Jersey. In 2008 he published Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin, and is working with filmmaker Keith Beauchamp on several projects.  Boyd has been inducted into both the Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent and the Madison Square Garden Hall of Fame as a journalist.

Along with his writing, Boyd is also the Managing Editor of The Black World Today, one of the leading online publications on the Internet. Boyd, a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit, teaches African and African-American History at the College of New Rochelle in the Bronx, and is an adjunct instructor at City College in the Black Studies Department.
 

Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin
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Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Atria (January 8, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 074329307X
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches

"Herb Boyd's study of Baldwin and Harlem features vivid literary portraits of a powerful writer in sometimes controversial dialogue with other major figures of his era. It also centers Baldwin's Harlem in a memorable, necessary way. Boyd's book is fascinating and authoritative on a subject that he knows well and writes about with insight and sympathy." — Arnold Rampersad, author of Ralph Ellison: A Biography

Baldwin's Harlem is an intimate
portrait of the life and genius of one
of our most brilliant literary minds:
James Baldwin.

Perhaps no other writer is as synonymous with Harlem as James Baldwin (1924-1987). The events there that shaped his youth greatly influenced Baldwin's work, much of which focused on his experiences as a black man in white America. Go Tell It on the Mountain, The Fire Next Time, Notes of a Native Son, and Giovanni's Room are just a few of his classic fiction and nonfiction books that remain an essential part of the American canon.

In Baldwin's Harlem, award-winning journalist Herb Boyd combines impeccable biographical research with astute literary criticism, and reveals to readers Baldwin's association with Harlem on both metaphorical and realistic levels. For example, Boyd describes Baldwin's relationship with Harlem Renaissance poet laureate Countee Cullen, who taught Baldwin French in the ninth grade. Packed with telling anecdotes, Baldwin's Harlem illuminates the writer's diverse views and impressions of the community that would remain a consistent presence in virtually all of his writing.

Baldwin's Harlem provides an intelligent and enlightening look at one of America's most important literary enclaves.

We Shall Overcome
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by Herb Boyd, Ruby Dee (Narrated by), Ossie Davis (Narrated by)

ISBN: 140220213X
Pub. Date: September 2004
Format: Hardcover, 320pp
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Incorporated

We Shall Overcome is a dramatic evocation of the forever poignant and courageous struggle of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, when African Americans, often accompanied by whites, fought to end the racial segregation in the North and South. In twenty-three chapters, Herb Boyd brings to life the stories and struggles of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Stokely Carmichael, Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer and many more who battled for social justice and equality.

The book begins with the boldness of returning black Americans who had served in World War II and refused to accept second class citizenship, demanding an end to Jim Crow laws. It continues with the murder of Emmett Till, the story of Rosa Parks (who sparked the end of the rule, "if you're black you sit in the back") and goes on to the rise of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, to the tragic bombing of the Birmingham church, which led to the death of four young black girls, to "Freedom Summer," the march on Selma and above all, the heroic story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who brought Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence to America.

The text is accompanied by two audio CDs that evoke the immediacy of these historical events, from the march on Selma to the march on Washington, the "barking dogs" of "Bull" Connor and the KKK, to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X.

In the tradition of Poetry Speaks, We Shall Overcome is a classic that one will want to read and hear and pass on to generations to come.

Pound for Pound A Biography of Sugar Ray Robinson
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ISBN: 0060934387
Pub. Date: January 2006
Format: Paperback, 313pp
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Hailed by Muhammad Ali as "the king, the master, my idol," Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest boxer America had seen since Joe Louis and is considered by many today to be, pound for pound, the best boxer the sport has ever known. A world welterweight and five-time middleweight champion, he had a career that spanned three decades. With his graceful yet powerful style and Hollywood looks — which he would use to his advantage upon his final retirement from boxing — he embodied the very essence of the "sweet science." Before he finally hung up his boxing gloves in 1965, at the age of forty-four, Sugar Ray Robinson won 125 consecutive fights, including victories over Henry Armstrong, Kid Gavilan, Carmen Basilio, Jake LaMotta, Rocky Graziano, Gene Fullmer, and Randy Turpin. His successes were not his alone, however. They belonged to his family as well, though those relationships would be marked by neglect and abuse.

At a time still characterized by discrimination, his victories, like those of Jackie Robinson, represented victories for all black America. And they were all the more symbolic because of the place he chose to call home — Harlem. Co-written with Robinson's son, Ray Robinson II, and thoroughly researched by Amsterdam News reporter Herb Boyd, Pound for Pound is not only a definitive portrait of an emotionally complex man and his family, it is also a portrait of Harlem at the apex of its creativity, a time when Miles Davis was playing at Minton's, Langston Hughes was writing his divine poetry, and a boy from Georgia originally named Walker Smith Jr. would take on the moniker "Sugar."

The Gentle Giant: The Autobiography of Yusef Lateef
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with Yusef Lateef

ISBN: 1929188129
Pub. Date: October 2005
Format: Paperback, 355pp
Publisher: Morton Books

The autobiography of a musical genius and poet, Yusef Lateef. Dr. Lateef's work combines images that delight the aesthetic senses and provoke the intellect. This is his story in his words.

First Sentence:
At the dawn of my life, I was born William Emmanuel Huddleston, Oct. 9, 1920 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, not too far from the neighborhood where blues singer Bessie Smith was born in 1894 and raised.

Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African American History Told by Those Who Lived It
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ISBN: 0385492790
Pub. Date: December 2000
Format: Paperback, 576pp
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group

Benjamin Banneker on Thomas Jefferson's hypocrisy * Old Elizabeth on spreading the Word * Frederick Douglass on life in the North * Sojourner Truth on black women's rights * W.E.B. Du Bois on the Talented Tenth * Matthew Henson on reaching the North Pole * and many more.

"It has been said, 'He who does not know history is doomed to repeat it.' We as African Americans must put forth a concerted effort to know and to write our own history...We have the knowledge, the know-how, the resources, and we were there."
--Rev. Bernice A. King

Celebrating the spirituality, courage, and intellectual achievements of African Americans, Autobiography of a People is the first anthology to effectively trace the history of the African American experience--from the Middle Passage to Emancipation, from the Civil War to Vietnam, from the Little Rock Nine to the Million Man March--by telling the story in the words of the men and women who lived it.

Editor Herb Boyd has combined a powerful chorus of voices from the past and present to create a compelling portrait of how African Americans have survived--and shaped--some of the most important events in United States history. The misery of slavery, the bloodshed of war, and the struggle for civil rights are just some of the pivotal experiences described in vivid detail throughout the book. Many of the most revered historical and intellectual figures, writers, religious leaders, and activists appear within these pages, such as Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Elaine Brown, Margaret Walker, and General Colin Powell. Yet this remarkable collection also includes riveting scenes from the lives of ordinary men and women whose accomplishments may not have been recorded in the history books, but whose experiences are equally important to the African American story.

Offering a wealth of historical detail and emotion, Autobiography of a People is a stunning accomplishment that brings African American history to life, in all its tragedy and triumph, in a brilliant testament to the black experience in America.


The book boasts an astounding roster of important historical and intellectual figures, writers and religious leaders, such as Phyllis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., General Colin Powell, and Angela Davis, as well as a generous selection of riveting accounts from ordinary people. The misery of slavery, the bloodshed of several American wars, and the struggle for civil rights are just some of the pivotal experiences described in vivid detail throughout the book. Linked by editor Herb Boyd's informative narrative bridges, these powerful voices from the past and present combine to create a compelling portrait of how African Americans have survived-- and shaped--some of the most important events in U.S. history.

A monumental achievement, AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PEOPLE brings African-American history to life in all its tragedy and triumph, in a brilliant testament to the black experience in America.

Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America--an Anthology
by Herb Boyd, Robert Allen
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ISBN: 0345383176
Pub. Date: January 1996
Format: Paperback, 922pp
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group

In 1995, with co-editor Robert Allen, Boyd received the American Book Award for Brotherman

The powerful opening excerpt by Frederick Douglass evokes his boyhood as a slave, and the collection closes with an eloquent discussion of the race problem today by Cornel West. A distinguished addition to black studies."
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The purpose of this extraordinary anthology is made abundantly clear by the editors' stated intention: "to create a living mosaic of essays and stories in which Black men can view themselves, and be viewed without distortion." In this, they have succeeded brilliantly. Brotherman contains more than one hundred and fifty selections, some never before published--from slave narratives, memoirs, social histories, novels, poems, short stories, biographies, autobiographies, position papers, and essays.

Brotherman books us passage to the world that Black men experience as adolescents, lovers, husbands, fathers, workers, warriors, and elders. On this journey they encounter pain, confusion, anger, and love while confronting the life-threatening issues of race, sex, and politics--often as strangers in a strange land. The first collection of its kind, Brotherman gathers together a multitude of voices that add a new, unforgettable chapter to American cultural identity.

The Harlem Reader: A Celebration of New York's Most Famous Neighborhood, from the Renaissance Years to the 21st Century
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ISBN: 1400046815
Pub. Date: May 2003
Format: Paperback, 336pp
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

There is no neighborhood in America as famous, infamous, and inspiring as Harlem. From its humble beginnings as a farming district and country retreat for the rich, Harlem grew to international prominence as the mecca  of black art and culture, then fell from grace, despised as a crime-ridden slum and symbol of urban decay. But during all of these phases there was writing in Harlem—great writing that sprang from one of the richest and most unique communities in the world. From Harlem’s most revered icons (like Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Ann Petry, and Malcolm X) to voices of a new generation (including Willie Perdomo, Mase, Grace Edwards, and Piri Thomas), The Harlem Reader gathers a wealth of vital impressions, stories, and narratives and blends them with original accounts offered by living storytellers, famous and not so famous. Fresh and vivid, this volume perfectly captures the dramatic moments and personalities at the core of Harlem’s ever-evolving story.

Race and Resistance: African Americans in the Twenty-First Century
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Herb Boyd (Editor)

ISBN: 0896086526
Pub. Date: August 2002
Series: African-American Studies
Format: Paperback, 250pp
Publisher: South End Press

In Race and Resistance: African Americans in the Twenty-First Century, leading African-American scholars and activists discuss the state of Black America today, and strategies for achieving full civil rights and equality. This broad, inclusive anthology makes a vital contribution to our understanding of racism and how it can be overcome. Essays on "e-black studies;" spirituality and activism; wisdom and cultural expression; the continuing impact of AIDS in the African American community; race and globalization; the anti-enforcement violence movement; black feminism; the history of the reparations movement in the US; environmental justice; the media; and others.

Contributors
Amiri Baraka, Salih Booker, Todd Burroughs, Yvonne Bynoe, Ron Daniels, Angela Y. Davis, Bill Fletcher, Jennifer Hamer, bell hooks, Joy James, Clarence Lang, Julianne Malveaux, Manning Marable, Sonia Sanchez, Paul Scott, Johnita Scott-Obadele, Charles Simmons, Alice Tait, Phill Wilson

Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Pablo Marcos (Illustrator)

ISBN: 1596792582
Pub. Date: January 2005
Series: Heroes of America Series
Format: Hardcover, 240pp
Publisher: ABDO Publishing Company
Age Range: 12 and up

This book tells of the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., who led the civil rights movement and sought freedom and respect for African Americans.

African History for Beginners: African Dawn - a Diasporan View
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Shey Wolvek-Pfister (Illustrator)

ISBN: 0863161448
Pub. Date: August 1991
Format: Paperback, 192pp
Publisher: Writers & Readers Publishing, Inc.

In African History for Beginners striking visuals and fascinating text bring to life the rich history of Africa. Readers learn about African lands and people: Zulu are treasures, the sophistication of Swahili, the courage of the Masai and much more about this vast, elusive land.

Black Panthers for Beginners
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Lance Tooks (Illustrator)

ISBN: 0863161960
Pub. Date: August 1995
Format: Paperback, 192pp
Publisher: Writers & Readers Publishing, Inc.

Throughout the text, Herb Boyd takes great care in presenting the facts about the Black Panther Party as objectively as possible. His rendering of this dramatic episode in American history is expertly written and very well organized. Lance Tooks's illustrations are lively and, in many instances, extremely moving. –Amazon

Annotation
Boyd examines the legacy of the Black Panthers, assessing the tangible and the intangible contributions of these young militants, as well as where they went astray. Contains profiles of Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Elaine Brown, David Hilliard and others. Illustrations throughout.

From the Publisher
A crowd of onlookers gawked from the sidewalk as four young black men dressed in black leather jackets and berets leaped from a Volkswagen, each of them wielding shotguns with bandoliers strapped across their bodies. The young men surrounded two white police officers who had accosted a black man and had him spread-eagled against a building. The young men did not say a word as the police officers watched them nervously, their eyes fixed on the shotguns. One of the young men held a large law book in his hand... This was the Black Panther Party in ideal action. The real story - the whole story - was both more and less heroic. So begins Herb Boyd's Black Panthers For Beginners. The late 1960s, when the Panthers captured the imagination of the nation's youth, was a time of revolution. While their furious passage was marked by death, destruction, and government sabotage, the Panthers left an instructive legacy for anyone who dares to challenge the system.

Down the Glory Road: Contributions of African Americans in United States History and Culture
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ISBN: 0788198580
Pub. Date: June 2001
Format: Paperback, 340pp
Publisher: DIANE Publishing Company

Herb Boyd presents the first comprehensive African American history book that reveals the vast contributions African Americans have made to the shaping of our culture and the building of our nation--from the first slaves brought here in 1619 to the Los Angeles Riots of 1992.

Related Links                

From Ike to Mao and beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist
Book Review Written by Herb Boyd
http://aalbc.com/reviews/fromiketomao.htm

Herb Boyd is the national editor of TBWT and is the originator/professor of the web site's online black history course
http://www.tbwt.org

 

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