W. Paul Coates founded Black Classic Press in 1978 in Baltimore, Maryland, originally working from the basement of his house. The company is one of the oldest independently owned Black publishers in operation in the United States. The primary mission of the press is to publish obscure and significant books by and about people of African descent. John G. Jackson, John Henrik Clarke, and Yosef Ben-Jochannan were major influences in defining the mission and early direction of the press. The company publishes about six titles annually; most are out-of-print historical books that the company brings back into print. The first books published by the company were pamphlets printed on a photocopier that Coates purchased. In the same vein, he established BCP Digital Printing in 1995 as an affiliated company of Black Classic Press. The printing company, a million-dollar business, serves as the printer for the publishing company as well as for other companies and organizations in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area.
Imprints
Black Classic Press has three imprints:
Black Classic Press: Historical reprints that deal with the African diaspora
W.M. DuForcelf: Currently defunct since 1994, a statement and a call for self-sufficiency in the African-American community
INPRINT EDITIONS: Serves academic books and titles that fall outside the primary mission of Black Classic Press list
Notable authors and titles
Walter Mosley
The press gained national attention in 1996 when best-selling author Walter Mosley chose Black Classic Press to publish Gone Fishin′, the prequel to his popular Easy Rawlins mysteries. Mosley decided to publish a book with a small Black publishing house because he felt it was important "to create a model that other writers, black or not, can look at to see that it's possible to publish a book successfully outside mainstream publishing in New York." The result was so successful that in 2003 the press collaborated again with Mosley to publish What Next: An African American Initiative Toward World Peace, part memoir and part call to action for African Americans after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. The Tempest Tales, Mosley's homage to Langston Hughes' character Jesse B. Semple, was the third collaboration between Mosley and Black Classic Press.
Gone Fishin': An Easy Rawlins Novel. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 1997.
What Next: An African American Initiative Toward World Peace. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 2003.
The Tempest Tales. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 2008.
Selected other publications
Baraka, Amiri, and Larry Neal. Black Fire An Anthology of Afro-American Writing. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 2007. Originally published: New York: Morrow, 1968.
Blyden, Edward Wilmot. Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 1994. 2nd edition, originally published 1888.
Du Bois, W. E. B. The Negro. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 2005. Originally published in 1915.
Ginzburg, Ralph. 100 Years of Lynchings. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 1988. Originally published: New York: Lancer Books, 1962.
Jones, Charles E. The Black Panther Party. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 1998.
Lewis, Reginald F., and Blair S. Walker. Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun?: How Reginald Lewis Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire. Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 2012. Commemorative edition with DVD. Originally published in 2005.
Miller, E. Ethelbert
* First Light
* Whispers, Secrets and Promises
* Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century
Seale, Bobby. Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. Baltimore, Md: Black Classic Press, 1991. Originally published New York: Random House, 1970.
Walker, David, and James Turner. David Walker's Appeal, in Four Articles: Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America: Third and Last Edition, Revised and Published by David Walker, 1830. Baltimore, Md: Black Classic Press, 1993.
