By Kyle T. Mays | The discourse of Black Power and Red Power existed side by side. The phrase “Black Power” emerged as a rallying cry in Greenwood, Mississippi, in June 1966, in a speech by Stokely Carmichael during the March Against Fear, which was organized after the shooting of James Meredith. While there were earlier iterations of “Black Power,” Carmichael popularized it. In “Black Power: The Politics of Liberation,” Carmichael and Charles Hamilton wrote, “The adoption of the concept of Black Power is one of the most legitimate and healthy developments in American politics and race relations in our time. . . . It is a call for black people in this country to unite, to recognize their heritage, to build a sense of community. It is a call for black people to begin to define their own goals, to lead their own organizations and to support those organizations. It is a call to reject the racist institutions and values of this society.” Read more →

By Gayatri Patnaik | Beacon Press sides with the trans and nonbinary community always—and especially in these times. As a book publisher, we speak through our books and want to lift up authors we have had the privilege of publishing over the last thirty years who affirm trans and nonbinary lives and identities. Read more →

By Catherine Tung and Perpetua Cannistraro | It was with extraordinary sadness that we learned that our author, Danielle Legros Georges, passed away in her Dorchester home on February 11 after a years-long battle with stage-four breast cancer. Her partner, Tom Laughlin, and her brothers, Gerard, Bernard, and Stephan, were with her. We are honored to have published her final book, ”Three Leaves, Three Roots,” and will find ways in the coming days, weeks, and beyond to celebrate the Poet laureate of Boston (2015-2019) and her work. Read more →

By Christian Coleman | Did you check your phones? Is it any shock that Google Calendar genuflected to the current scorched-earth administration’s anti-DEI tour and removed Black History Month from its holiday list during Black History Month? Is it a shock that they claimed their holiday list wasn’t “globally scalable or sustainable?” Talk about Big Tech being an avowed fascist’s pick me. Doublespeak and all. Well, guess what, Google Calendar? We don’t need you to recognize Black History Month. Read more →

By Mei Su Bailey | In 2029, Beacon Press will celebrate 175 years of continuous book publishing. In the lead up to that milestone, the Press is drawing from its rich publishing history to reissue a selection of core titles that remain relevant to readers today. The series, “Beacon Press Classics,” will be released throughout 2025 and beyond, beginning with four titles slated for February 4. Read more →

A Q&A with Jeanne Theoharis and Gayatri Patnaik | When I published the original edition, I did so without being able to see a cache of Rosa Parks’s papers that had been held for years by Guernsey’s auction following a dispute over her estate. In late 2014, Howard Buffett, horrified by a news story about how Rosa Parks’s papers and effects were being held by this auction house, instructed his foundation to act, bought them and then donated the papers and photographs to the Library of Congress. Read more →