Prepare for a visit to AAMLO with these special topic resource guides.
This resource guide is intended to help users locate holdings at AAMLO related to African American printers, publishers, and print culture.
It highlights holdings in the following areas:
● Selected Library Material at AAMLO
● Selected Archival Collections at AAMLO
Other collections may contain relevant materials. Please contact AAMLO (aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org) with any questions or to schedule an appointment to view materials in person.
Selected Library Materials
Black Book Publishers in the United States: a Historical Dictionary of the Presses
Gatekeepers of Black Culture: Black-owned Book Publishing in the United States, 1817-1981 by Donald F. Joyce
A History of the Black Press by Armistead Scott Pride
Visualizing Equality: African American Rights and Visual Culture in the Nineteenth Century by Aston Gonzalez
Freedom's Journal: the First African-American Newspaper by Jacqueline Bacon
San Francisco Lithographer: African American Artist Grafton Tyler Brown by Robert J. Chandler
Black Index: Afro-Americana in Selected Periodicals, 1907-1949 by Richard Newman
Black Printmakers and the W.P.A. by Leslie King-Hammond
Black Journals of the United States by Walter C. Daniel
Jim Crow Networks: African American Periodical Cultures by Eurie Dahn
Radical Intellect: Liberator Magazine and Black Activism in the 1960s by Christopher M. Tinson
Pimping Fictions: African American Crime Literature and the Untold Story of Black Pulp Publishing by Justin Gifford
Dudley Randall, Broadside Press, and the Black Arts Movement in Detroit, 1960-1995 by Julius Eric Thompson
Black Artists on Art by Samella S. Lewis and Ruth G. Waddy
The Black Arts Movement and the Black Panther Party in American Visual Culture by Jo-Ann Morgan
Succeeding Against the Odds by John H.Johnson
The Man From Essence: Creating a Magazine for Black Women by Edward Lewis
The Black Experience in Design by Anne H. Berry, Kareem Collie, Penina Acayo Laker
Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race by Kelly Walters
Selected Archival Collections
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Vertical File Collection. Includes advertisements, flyers, brochures, and other print material related to Tilghman Press and Charles H. Tilghman (1897-1985). Tilghman Press of Oakland, California, was one of the leading Black-owned printing companies on the West Coast for decades. Tilghman began printing while a teenager, publishing the Colored Directory of the Leading Cities of Northern California in 1916 on a printing press installed in the family home. He opened a commercial printing company in 1919, taking a range of jobs that included advertisements for African American businesses and social clubs, to publishing newspapers including the Oakland Sunshine and San Francisco Sun-Reporter. Tilghman Press also published placards and posters for Bay Area jazz, soul, and rock concerts for the likes of Bobby "Blue" Bland, Mary Wells, and the Grateful Dead. Other selected items include:
- Printed material by the Associated Publishers, founded by historian Carter G. Woodson
- Brochures from Shannon Shannon publishers and distributors of fine art prints
- Publications by Merit Publisher
- Ethnic Materials Information Exchange Task Force "Minority publishers" list
- Press releases on Dr. Carlton B. Goodlet's election to the head of the National Newspaper Publishers Association
- West Coast Black Publishers Association conference programs
- Select volumes of the California Voice, Oakland Sunshine, the Sun-Reporter, and others
- Periodicals including Black Dialogue, Black Dot Cafe Magazine, Grove Street Grapevine, Konceptualizations, New Lady magazine, Soulbook, and many others
Ruth Beckford Papers. Includes oral history interviews with Charles H. Tilghman (1897-1985), printer and owner of Tilghman Press. Tilghman discusses his start in the printing business, publishing the 1915 Colored Directory of the Leading Cities of Northern California, and his mother/social activist Hettie B. Tilghman. Also included are interviews with Elbert Allen ("E. A.") Daly (1891-1987), publisher of the California Voice newspaper, and Urania P. Cummings discussing her husband's work as a printer for the California Voice. Topics discussed by E.A. Daly include purchasing the California Voice from E. Marshall, and subjects related to advertising, circulation, and editing the California Voice.
Roberts Family Papers. Newspaper owner and editor, business leader, and politician Frederick Madison Roberts (1879-1952) began his career as a newspaper publisher serving as editor of Colorado Springs Light from 1908-1912. Upon his return to Los Angeles in 1912, Roberts purchased and began editing New Age Dispatch, a weekly paper he edited until 1948.
The Combination Magazine Collection. The Combination (1963-1978?) was an African American magazine published monthly in Oakland, California by editor and publisher Brackeen McCarty, owner of the Bay Area Printing Company. The magazine featured photographs and short articles on African American social organizations, entertainment, local politics and advertisements of African American-owned businesses such as Jenkin’s Bar-B-Q, Ray’s Club, and local barbershops.
Bayviewer Magazine Collection. The Bayviewer (1967-?) magazine collection consists of 21 issues of the Bayviewer and Lennie's Bayviewer magazine, a political and social magazine focused on the African American community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Published by Lenlo Associates and Lennie's Publishing Company, the magazine regularly featured advertisements by black-owned business and articles on local fashion trends, entertainment venues, politics, social organizations.
The Flatlands Newspaper Collection. The Flatlands newspaper was an independent newspaper printed in Oakland from 1966-1968[?] and focused on issues related to poverty, education, housing, police brutality, and politics in East and West Oakland. The newspaper’s slogan was “tell it like it is and do what is needed” and advocated for government accountability and reform for those affected and displaced by housing developments and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). The newspaper’s staff included Alexandra Close and Darrow Bishop, a staff photographer, Lynn Phipps, and a 14 person editorial board of Curtis Lee Baker, Vera Bumcrot, Mark Comfort, Gloria Comfort, Urban Dennis, Gene Drew, Bill Goetz, Pauline Goetz, John George, Bill Lowe, Jerry Leo, Jack Ortega, Agnes Woods, and Ralph Williams.
Black Panther Black Community News Service Collection. The Black Panther Black Community News Service Collection consists of 420 newspapers published by the Black Panther Party between 1967-1980. Each issue was between 16-28 pages and featured a range of articles and op-eds on the activities of the party, black power, police brutality, communism, and party leadership. The back of each issue featured artwork from artist and Black Panther's Minister of Culture Emory Douglas. Beginning on March 13, 1971, the newspapers were re-named The Black Panther Intercommunal News Service.
Commemorator Newspaper Collection. The Commemorator newspaper was a newspaper printed in South Berkeley from 1990-2013 by the Commemoration Committee for the Black Panther Party and focused on promoting the goals of the Black Panther Party as outlined in its Ten Point Program. The newspaper served to teach the history, goals, and principles of the Black Panther Party, as well as report community news mostly related to living wage employment, violent crime, and adult literacy. The newspaper editorial staff included Melvin Dickson, Clifford Cody, and Leroy Dupree.
Jefferson A. Beaver Papers. The Jefferson A. Beaver papers consist of photographs, correspondence, awards, newspaper clippings, and programs that document his activities as a banker and co-founder of the Transbay Federal Savings and Loan. Includes two photographs of Jefferson A. Beaver (1908-1991) with the bank's printing press.
Rhonda White-Warner Papers. In 1981 publisher and media consultant Rhonda White-Warner (1951-2014) created her first media consulting and event planning agency, Authenic Vint’age Promotions, contracting with local artists to assist with graphic design, media advertising, and event planning. The Rhonda White-Warner papers consist of consulting project files, subject files, photographs, back issues and administrative files of Tidbits magazine, administrative files and theatrical programs of the Oakland Ensemble Theatre, and assorted printed material largely documenting the African American performing arts community in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s and 1980s.
Additional Information
Search the library using the catalog.
Consult AAMLO's finding aids in the Online Archive of California.
We are working to create new resource guides. Have an idea for a new guide? Contact us at aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org.
