Herb Boyd
American journalist (born 1938)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Herb Boyd (born November 1, 1938)[1] is an American journalist, teacher, author, and activist. His articles appear regularly in the New York Amsterdam News. He is a former teacher of black studies at the City College of New York and the College of New Rochelle.[2]
Herb Boyd | |
|---|---|
Boyd speaking at the National Writers Union (NWU – UAW Local 1981) 30th anniversary celebration in NYC | |
| Born | November 1, 1938 Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Wayne State University |
| Occupations | Journalist, teacher, author, and activist |
| Awards | American Book Award (1995) |
Biography
Boyd was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and grew up in Detroit, Michigan.[1][3] He met Malcolm X in 1958 and credits him as an inspiration: "[Malcolm] set me on the path to become the writer-activist I am, to try to live up to the very ennobling things that he represented."[4]
Boyd attended Wayne State University, graduating with a BA degree in philosophy.[5] During the late 1960s, he helped establish the first black studies classes there and went on to teach at the university for 12 years.[6] He also co-developed and instructed the initial curriculum in jazz studies at the Oberlin Conservatory.[7]
In addition to the Amsterdam News, Boyd's work has been published in The Black Scholar, The City Sun, Down Beat, Emerge, and Essence.[1][2] He has been recognized with awards from the National Association of Black Journalists and the New York Association of Black Journalists.[2] In 2014, the National Association of Black Journalists inducted Boyd into its Hall of Fame.[8]
Boyd co-edited, with Robert L. Allen, Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America, which was given the 1995 American Book Award.[9] Boyd's biography of James Baldwin, Baldwin's Harlem (2008), was nominated for an NAACP Image Award in 2009.[10]
Boyd was managing editor of The Black World Today, a now-defunct online news service.[1][11]
In 2018, Boyd was honored with the Outstanding Career Achievement Award at the James Aronson Social Justice Journalism Awards at Hunter College. Boyd credited his wife, writer and professor Elza Dinwiddie-Boyd, for editing his published books.[12]
Selected works
- African History for Beginners, For Beginners, 2007. ISBN 978-1-934389-18-8
- Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African-American History Told by Those Who Lived It (editor), Anchor Books, 2000. ISBN 978-0-385-49279-9
- Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin, Atria, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7432-9307-5
- Black Detroit: A People's History of Self-Determination, Amistad Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0-06-234662-9
- Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America (co-editor with Robert L. Allen), One World/Ballantine, 1995. ISBN 978-0-345-37670-1
- By Any Means Necessary: Malcolm X: Real, Not Reinvented (co-editor with Ron Daniels, Maulana Karenga, and Haki R. Madhubuti), Third World Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-88378-336-8
- Yusef Lateef; Herb Boyd (2005). The Gentle Giant: The Autobiography of Yusef Lateef. Morton Books Inc. ISBN 978-1929188123.
- We Shall Overcome: The History of the Civil Rights Movement as It Happened, Sourcebooks, 2004. ISBN 978-1-4022-0213-1
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