African American Life Series

The African American Life Series publishes scholarship and creative works representative of the historical, social, cultural, and economic experiences of African Americans. Because Wayne State University Press is located in Detroit, the series has a particular interest in topics related to urban life and culture.

Series Editors: Melba Joyce Boyd and Ronald E. Brown, Wayne State University.

Coleman Young and Detroit Politics: From Social Activist to Power Broker

Wilbur C. Rich

The first political biography of Coleman Young, (1919–1997), Detroit’s longest-serving and first black chief executive.

Great Black Russian: A Novel on the Life and Times of Alexander Pushkin

John Oliver Killens

Out of print.

Indignant Heart: A Black Worker’s Journal

Charles Denby

Autobiography of Detroit auto worker and labor militant Charles Denby.

The Spook Who Sat by the Door

Sam Greenlee

An explosive, award-winning novel in the black literary tradition, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is both a satire of the civil rights problems in the United States in the late 1960s and a serious attempt to focus on the issue of black miltancy.

The Roots of African American Drama

Edited by Leo Hamalian and James V. Hatch

Thirteen historically significant plays by African-American playwrights including William Wells Brown’s abolitionist drama, The Escape—the earliest extant black play written in America, and Willis Richardson’s Chip Woman’s Fortune, the first black play on Broadway.

Walls: Essays, 1985–1990

Kenneth A. McClane

Essays by a well-known African American poet exploring America’s failed promise to include all its citizenry.