6 Black-Owned Book Publishers
Black Classic Press
Similar to Haki Madhubuti Paul Coates got his start with a few hundred dollars and a basement location, this time in Baltimore. A former Black Panther, Coates has advertised, “We don’t publish best sellers. We just publish books essential to the black experience.” To that end the press is primarily concerned with uncovering forgotten gems of historical and social significance and making them available to new audiences. Coates’ publishing house drew national attention in 1996 when, in a show of solidarity with the independent press, Walter Mosley entrusted him with Gone Fishing. More recently, average readers may have become familiar with the man and his work through his son’s memoir. Ta-Nehisi Coates, a popular and engaging writer for The Atlantic Monthly, pays homage to his dad in The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood.
