Black Political Pulp Fiction: Presidential Power and Political Assassination in The Black Assassin, 1975

Blaxploitation James-Howard Readus African American Comics Pulps

First Edition

Readus, James Howard. The Black Assassin, 1975, places the prospect of a Black American president at the center of a pulp narrative of assassination and political conspiracy. Published by Holloway House during the expansion of Black-oriented popular fiction in the 1970s, the novel joined contemporary crime and action paperbacks that placed Black protagonists and political subjects within genres previously marketed largely around white characters. Its premise is stated explicitly on the cover: “An international conspiracy murders to put a black president in the White House!”

Readus, James Howard. The Black Assassin. Los Angeles: Holloway House, 1975. First edition. 224 pages. Softcover. 4.25 x 7 inches. The front wrapper depicts a Black man looking through a rifle’s crosshairs, while an inset scope view shows two white men, one dropping a briefcase as a bullet strikes him. The combination of the cover illustration and its promotional line makes racial politics, assassination, and presidential succession explicit elements of the book’s marketing. Holloway House issued the novel within a publishing program particularly associated during the period with Black crime, action, and street fiction, distributing such narratives in inexpensive mass-market paperback form.

Published a decade after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and three years after Shirley Chisholm became the first Black candidate to seek the presidential nomination of a major American political party, The Black Assassin appeared when Black participation in electoral politics and political office had become increasingly prominent subjects in American public life. Readus converts the possibility of a Black presidency into the premise for a conspiracy thriller, while Holloway House’s packaging presents that premise through the visual vocabulary of 1970s action and blaxploitation publishing: firearms, threatened violence, racial conflict, and an emphatic cover line. Light sunning to front and back covers. Textblock clean and tight. Overall good condition.

Item #18253

Price: $225.00