About Dudley Randall
Dudley Randall (January 14, 1914, Washington – August 5, 2000, Southfield, Michigan) was an American poet, publisher, and civil rights activist. At the age of 4 he wrote his first poem "Maryland, My Maryland". At the age of 13, he published poems in the column Young Poets of the newspaper the Detroit Free Press. During his young years he read the English and American poets and in particular Jean Toomer and Countee Cullen who will influence him in his writing. His father, socially engaged, takes him and his siblings to conferences given by leaders of the recent National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) such as W.E.B Du Bois, Walter White and James Weldon Johnson. At age 16 (in 1930), he completed his secondary education at Eastern High School.In 1965, he founded his publishing house, Broadside Press, which published many African-American poets. Through the publications of his publishing house, he contributed to the success of many poets and more particularly those of the Black Arts Movement. The first book published by Broadside Press was Poem Counterpoem (1966), co-authored by Dudley Randall and Margaret Danner. Broadside Press will bring African American poets to the limelight at a time when it was difficult for them to get published. Little by little Broadside Press by the quality of its books, audio cassettes, discs, posters, became a reference for libraries and universities all over the world. In 1977, Broadside Press experienced difficulties, the publishing house was bought by the Alexander Crummell Memorial Center in Detroit. Dudley Randall grew old, in the 1980s, the Black Arts Movement ran out of steam, finally, in 1985, Randall ceded Broadside Press to Hilda and Don Vest who renewed the catalog.
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