CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/24/2021

On the anniversary of George Floyd’s death, a compendium of writings by and about Black American artists, 1960–1980

Featured here are the covers of Contemporary Black Artists in America (Whitney Museum of American Art, 1971), The Black 70’s, edited by Floyd B. Barbour (Porter Sargent, 1970) and AFRI-COBRA III (University Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 1973)—three of the publications featured in Gregory R. Miller & Co.’s landmark new release, The Soul of a Nation Reader, a collection of original writings by and on artists of the Black Power era. Edited by Mark Godfrey and Allie Biswas, this comprehensive, exhaustively researched volume is the only book of its kind. This week, on the anniversary of George Floyd’s tragic but catalytic death, it is clear that this historic collection could not be more relevant, or more empowering. On another cover, of the short-lived ABA: A Journal of Affairs of Black Artists, conceived in 1971 by Edmund Barry Gaither and funded by the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA) in Boston, the editors printed the following text: “Where has the Black Artist in America been all this time? He’s been in the streets in Watts, in Roxbury and Chicago. He’s been in his body. In hard times. He’s been in the eyes of people who love him and the eyes of people who hate him. And he’s been putting it all down. On canvas. In stone. Out of wood. Affairs of Black Artists, a new journal devoted to the life and times of Black Artists, takes a good look at where the Black Artist in America has been, where he is, and where he’s going. It’s beautiful. It’s enlightening. It’s about time.”