Negro Heroes No. 1, issued in 1947 by the National Urban League with Parents' Magazine Press, turns the educational comic into an anti-racist instrument in the early postwar United States, when Jim Crow segregation still governed American media. Joe Louis greets young readers with the promise that the comic is.....
[African American][Comic] Arneson, Don. Lobo marks a decisive intervention in American popular culture by introducing one of the first African American protagonists to headline his own comic series in 1965, directly within the visual and narrative conventions of the Western genre. Issued during the height of the Civil Rights Movement.....
[African American] [Comics] Fitzgerald, Bertram. "Fast Willie Jackson" (1976) documents the emergence of Black-centered comic publishing in the post–Civil Rights era, aligning with the expansion of African American media production during the Black Arts Movement and Blaxploitation period. Produced in 1976, the series situates Black teenage life within contemporary urban.....
[African American Comics] The first Black hero in Marvel Comics publishing history in Jungle Tales nos. 1, 5, and 7. These issues date from a 1954-1955 run in which Atlas Comics, the label that developed into Marvel Comics, featuring one of the earliest Black lead features in American mainstream comics.....
[African American Sports] Archive of Joe Louis comics and magazines tracing the public reception and popularity of the Black heavyweight champion in pop culture including his military service, controversy, and status as a patriotic icon and role model after defeating Max Schmeling. 1937 to 1950. The six titles show how.....
Graham, Lorenz. South Town; North Town; Whose Town? 1958–1969. These three novels document African American youth experience across the Jim Crow South and mid-century Northern cities, presenting a sustained narrative of migration, education, and racial inequality through the character of David Williams. Written during and immediately preceding the Civil Rights.....
[African American] [Pulp] Demetre, Margaret. Unchained Desire. New York: Comet Press Books, 1959. First edition. Original cloth binding in illustrated red and cream dust jacket featuring a stylized nude female figure. 188 pages. 8vo. A provocative novel published under Comet Press’s “Milestone Book” imprint, Unchained Desire typifies mid-century erotic fiction’s.....
Beck, Robert, writing as Iceberg Slim, Mama Black Widow and The Naked Soul of Iceberg Slim, 1969 and 1971, brings together two Holloway House paperbacks central to African American urban literature, street fiction, Black pulp publishing, and queer representation. Beck, born Robert Lee Maupin and later known as Iceberg Slim.....
[African American][Comics] DC Comics. Green Lantern (1984–1985) marks the period in which John Stewart, an African American architect from Detroit, assumes sustained narrative control of a major DC superhero title. Published between 1984 and 1985, these issues place Stewart as the primary Green Lantern, moving him from a secondary or.....
Savoy, Willard. Alien Land. New York: Signet Books 1950. Contains 192 pages. Classic pulp cover art of a young Black woman wearing a canary-yellow dress inside a sheriff's office. Behind her stands two white men. Text above title reads, "Between two worlds--an unforgettable novel of love and fear..." Alien Land.....
[Interracial Relationships] [Pulp] Gordon, Ian. Harlem Is My Heaven (The Night Thorn). New York: Berkley Publishing Corp. First edition, 1952. Original illustrated wrappers depict a white man on his knees embracing a Black woman dressed in a vibrant off-shoulder blouse and skirt, her expression distant and reflective. 8vo, 159 pages.....
[African American][Comics] 1966 issue of The Avengers featuring the first appearance of Black hero Dr. Bill Foster, the man who would become Black Goliath. New York: Marvel Comics Group, September 1966. Staple-bound in original wrappers. The Avengers No. 32, “The Sign of the Serpent!”, featuring the debut appearance of Dr.....
[African American][Comics] Our Gang Comics No. 22. New York: Dell Publishing Co., March–April 1946. A notable comic featuring a Black main character (Buckwheat), a rarity in mainstream American comics of the 1940s. Our Gang Comics No. 22 presents an integrated ensemble of child characters, adapted from the long-running MGM short.....
African American stories in pulp novels, 1960s-70s archive of a five pulp novels. These novels offer a revealing insight into how Black history, pain, and agency were packaged and consumed during the Civil Rights and post-Civil Rights eras. The archive includes titles by both African American and white authors, blending.....
Black is Beautiful, BB Johnson. Paperback Library: New York, 1970. First edition Mass Market Paperback. Measures 7 x 4.25 inches. 158 pages. Soft cover show a group of black militants, one centered with a fist raised in the black power solute, his head and arm in the crosshairs of a......
[Blaxploitation Pulp] The Black Assassin. James-Howard Readus. Holloway House: Los Angeles, 1975. First edition. 4.25 x 7 inches. 224 pages. Soft front cover shows a man looking through the crosshairs of a rifle with the scope view pictured above him showing 2 white men, one dropping a briefcase as the.....
[African American] Moon, Bucklin. The Darker Brother. New York City: Bantam Books, November, 1949. Bantam Edition, First paperback printing. 246 pages in total. The cover depicts an African-American man named Ben, and his fiancé, Birdie in the streets of Harlem being confronted by a hostile White man clenching his papers.....
[Blaxploitation Pulp] Black Man's Justice, White Man's Grief. Donald Goines. First edition. Holloway House: Los Angeles, 1973. Measures 4.25 x 7 inches. 239 pages. Orange soft cover shows a man leaning against the slats of a prison cell, his expression downcast. The novel is considered a classic of prison fiction.....
[Comics][African American] Four issues of Black superhero The Falcon. Archive of four issues from the groundbreaking 1983–1984 Marvel Comics limited series The Falcon, starring Sam Wilson, one of the earliest Black superheroes in mainstream American comics. This limited run was the first solo comic focused on the Falcon and, notably.....
[Blaxploitation Pulp] Black Renegades. James-Howard Readus. First edition. Holloway House: Los Angeles, 1976. Measures 4.25 x 7 inches. 221 pages. Cover photo shows 4 figures interposed on one another, two of them holding guns, another in recognizable pimp's hat. The story follows brothers known as the black renegades as they.....
[African American] [Comics] Negro Americans: The Early Years (Classics Illustrated No. 169). New York: Gilberton Company, Inc., 1962. Staplebound with color-illustrated wrappers. A standalone issue of Classics Illustrated, devoted entirely to the contributions of Black Americans from the colonial period through the 20th century. Published in 1962 during the height.....
Himes, Chester. Pinktoes. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1965. First American edition. 256 pages, about 6" x 8." Humorous novel of sexual integration and social justice satire by the hard-boiled author most known for his Harlem Detective series. Chester Himes' oeuvre is incredibly versatile and his stories often touch on.....
Gordon, Ian. The Night Thorn. New York: Popular Library 1953. Contains 192 pages, measures about 4.5" x 6.5." Classic pulp cover art by Rafael DeSoto presents a racially ambiguous woman sitting at a piano, while a white man smokes a cigarette and observes her from a distance. Tagline reads, "The.....
[African American] [Pulp] Feibleman, Peter S. A Place Without Twilight. New York: Signet Books, The New American Library, 1960. First Edition Papaerback Pulp, previously published as hardcover in 1957. 352 pages. Measures 4.25" x 7". Set in the New Orleans during the '30s and '40s. Plot follows Cille and her.....
[Blaxploitation Pulp] That's Where the Cat's At, Baby. B.B Johnson. First edition. Paperback Library: New York, 1970. Measures 4.25 x 7 inches. The third in Johnson's Superspade series, the story follows Richard Spade as he helps a black politician get elected despite pressures from neighborhood organized crime. Cover shows photo.....
