A POEM FOR DUDLEY RANDALL

A Black boy raised by poetry-loving parents grows up to become a poet and founder of a publishing company.

Born in 1914, Dudley Felker Randall composed his first poem at age 4, and though he hid his love of poetry from peers, he published a poem in a newspaper while in high school. Inspired by the poets of the Harlem Renaissance, Randall continued writing while working job after job—foundry worker, postal worker, and finally librarian—and after many rejections, his “Ballad of Birmingham” struck a chord with people devastated by the terrorist church bombing of 1963. Before allowing folk singer Jerry Moore to use his poem as song lyrics, Randall wisely printed his work as a broadside to copyright it. It sold well, and his publishing company, Broadside Press, was born. He went on to publish many well-known Black writers, among them Amiri Baraka and Gwendolyn Brooks. Tate’s thorough account is rich with detail, providing the right level of information to convey his subject’s significance. Spare yet powerful lines of text are thoughtfully laid out, pairing beautifully with Freeman’s collage-style illustrations, which layer striking portraits of Randall against shimmering backdrops with images that further situate the man historically—newspaper headlines about the Klan, portraits of the artists who influenced him. Four of Randall’s poems are incorporated into the book, two of them cleverly placed within the story itself, adding to the narrative’s immersive flow.

An inspiring, informative, and entirely satisfying tribute.