Herb Boyd (born November 1, 1938) is an American journalist, teacher, author, and activist. His articles appear regularly in the ''

New York Amsterdam News The ''Amsterdam News'' (also known as ''New York Amsterdam News'') is a weekly Black-owned newspaper serving New York City. It is one of the oldest newspapers geared toward African Americans in the United States and has published columns by s ...

''. He teaches black studies at the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

and the

College of New Rochelle The College of New Rochelle (CNR) was a private Catholic college with its main campus in New Rochelle, New York, but also in Australia, England, and Germany. It was founded as the College of St. Angela by Mother Irene Gill, OSU of the Ursuline O ...

Biography

Boyd was born in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% f ...

, and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He met

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...

in 1958 and credits him as an inspiration: " alcolmset me on the path to become the writer-activist I am, to try to live up to the very ennobling things that he represented." Boyd attended

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

, graduating with a BA in philosophy. During the late 1960s, he helped establish the first black studies classes there and went on to teach at the university for 12 years. He also co-developed and instructed the initial curriculum in jazz studies at the

Oberlin Conservatory The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is a private music conservatory in Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. It was founded in 1865 and is the second oldest conservatory and oldest continually operating conservatory in the United States. It is one o ...

. In addition to the ''

Amsterdam News The ''Amsterdam News'' (also known as ''New York Amsterdam News'') is a weekly Black-owned newspaper serving New York City. It is one of the oldest newspapers geared toward African Americans in the United States and has published columns by ...

'', Boyd's work has been published in ''

The Black Scholar ''The Black Scholar'' (''TBS''), the third-oldest journal of Black culture and political thought in the United States, was founded in 1969 near San Francisco, California, by Robert Chrisman, Nathan Hare, and Allan Ross. It is arguably the most i ...

'', ''

The City Sun ''The City Sun'' was a weekly newspaper that was published in Brooklyn from 1984 through 1996. Its primary focus was on issues of interest to African Americans in New York City. ''The City Sun'' was founded by African-American journalists Andrew ...

'', '' Down Beat'', ''

Emerge Emerge may refer to: * ''Emerge: The Best of Neocolours'', the fourth album of Neocolours * Emerge Desktop, a Desktop shell replacement for Microsoft Windows * Emerge (magazine), ''Emerge'' (magazine), a defunct news magazine * Emerge Stimulation ...

'', and ''

Essence Essence ( la, essentia) is a polysemic term, used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it ...

''. He has been recognized with awards from the

National Association of Black Journalists The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is an organization of African-American journalists, students, and media professionals. Founded in 1975 in Washington, D.C., by 44 journalists, the NABJ's stated purpose is to provide quality p ...

and the New York Association of Black Journalists. In 2014, the National Association of Black Journalists inducted Boyd into its Hall of Fame. ''Brotherman'', which Boyd co-edited with Robert L. Allen, was given the 1995

American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

. His biography ''Baldwin's Harlem'' was nominated for an

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. Similar to ...

in 2009. Boyd was managing editor of

The Black World Today The Black World Today was a communicative website founded in July 1996 by Don Rojas (former press secretary to Maurice Bishop), with Herb Boyd as managing editor. The website is now defunct.Todd S. BurroughsDrums in the Global Village./ref> The s ...

, a now-defunct online news service. In 2018, Boyd was honored with the Outstanding Career Achievement Award at the James Aronson Social Justice Journalism Awards at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admin ...

. Boyd credited his wife, writer and professor Elza Dinwiddie-Boyd, for editing his published books.

Selected works

*''African History for Beginners'', For Beginners, 2007. *''Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African-American History Told by Those Who Lived It'' (editor), Anchor Books, 2000. *''Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin'', Atria, 2008. *''Black Detroit: A People's History of Self-Determination'', Amistad, 2017 *''Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America'' (co-editor with Robert L. Allen), One World/Ballantine, 1995. *''By Any Means Necessary: Malcolm X: Real, Not Reinvented'' (co-editor with Ron Daniels,

Maulana Karenga Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga (born Ronald McKinley Everett, July 14, 1941), previously known as Ron Karenga, is an American activist, author, and professor of Africana studies, best known as the creator of the pan-African and African-American holi ...

, and Haki R. Madhubuti), Third World Press, 2012. *''We Shall Overcome: The History of the Civil Rights Movement as It Happened'', Sourcebooks, 2004.

References

External links

"NABJ 2014 Hall of Fame Inductee – HERB BOYD"
YouTube video. * * * 1938 births Living people African-American activists African-American academics African-American journalists African-American writers City College of New York faculty College of New Rochelle faculty Wayne State University alumni 20th-century American journalists American male journalists American Book Award winners {{US-journalist-1930s-stub