Broadside press of Detroit

Michigan Historical Review, Spring, 2000 by Evelyn Leasher

And these economic problems continued. Writing in the early 1980s, a historian of black-owned publishing houses noted,

   The sharp increase in the open market interest rates, which soared from
   5.43 percent in July 1977, to a record 17.10 percent in July 1981,
   adversely affected all businesses, especially small business enterprises
   like Black commercial book publishing firms seeking loans. The federal
   government's decisions to drastically reduce funding of ... library
   programs ... and other book related educational and cultural programs is
   resulting in a sizeable loss in the demand for books, including books about
   Black Americans. And, finally, the wave of neoconservatism in the attitude
   of white Americans about Black Americans sweeping across the country in the
   early 1980s is having a negative influence on the demand by white Americans
   for books about black Americana. (13)

The financial reversals at Broadside Press were sudden, at least to the outside observer: "In 1974 Broadside Press under Randall's management was one of the most prolific Black commercial book-publishing firms in the United States. Late in 1975, Broadside Press stopped publishing books and in 1977 the firm was sold." (14)

The press was purchased by the Alexander Crummel Memorial Center, a Detroit church. The center did not attempt to continue publishing, but it did make the Broadside Press inventory available. By 1982 Dudley Randall had regrouped and regained control of the press. "There was a clause in the contract that after five years the press would come back to [him] unless the Crummel Center wanted to retain it. They were changing ministers, and there was no active interest in the press on the part of the parishioners; so they offered it back to [him]." (15)

When Randall regained the press he made it a nonprofit organization, and there was a great deal of interest in his return as publisher: "The local literati will remember that Randall founded the firm of the same name in 1965, but had to reluctantly sell it in 1977. Now, it's back in his hands, and the resurrection of the local imprint is good news for writers and readers who recall the extraordinary contribution Randall's plucky venture made in its first life." (16)

Randall faced many challenges in his renewed ownership and editorship of the press. Times had changed, and the Black Arts Movement was over. Between 1982 and 1984 Randall was able to publish only one broadside and five new books. Sales of the new material and of the press's backlog were modest. "At the age of seventy-one in 1985 ... Dudley Randall for a second time reluctantly gave up the reins of leadership of Broadside, due to `economic reasons' and a desire on his part to retire from active work. Randall sold the company to Hilda and Donald Vest of Detroit, an active couple on the educational and cultural scene in Detroit." (17)

In May 1978 Black Enterprise Magazine called Randall "the father of the black poetry movement." His accomplishment at Broadside Press was to offer an outlet for poetry that otherwise would not have existed. "Thirty years ago, very few white publishers wanted anything to do with such young radical black writers, no matter how great or innovative the writers were. Broadside not only welcomed these writers but nurtured them and, as black publishers, gave them a sense of self-determination and community control. Broadside also gave them exposure and status that may have otherwise eluded them so early in their careers. The audience for these young poets was hungry for work that spoke to and through the African American experience." (18)