SOURCE: “Broadside Press: A Personal Chronicle,” in The Black Seventies, edited by Floyd B. Barbour, Porter Sargent Publisher, 1970, pp. 139-48.

In the following essay, Randall offers a history of Broadside Press, including a description of its early years, its philosophy and business structure, and its significant publications. Randall further states his concern for the need of more small black presses that specialize in the genres of the essay, drama, and reference.

Broadside Press did not grow from a blueprint. I did not, like Joe Goncalves when he planned the Journal of Black Poetry, save money in advance to finance the press. Broadside Press began without capital, from the twelve dollars I took out of my paycheck to pay for the first Broadside, and has grown by hunches, intuitions, trial and error.

Our first publication was the Broadside “Ballad of Birmingham.” Folk singer Jerry Moore of New York had...