Gwendolyn Brooks
(1917-2000)

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000)
Riot. Detroit, Michigan: Broadside Press, 1970.


“They were black and loud. / And not detainable. And not discreet.” So begins Brooks’ poem, Riot (1969), written about the Chicago riots following Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination. Her voice rings in fierce support of the collective uprising. The cover’s striking color contrasts, which mirror Millay’s, reflect the Black Power Movement’s urgent demand for change. Nearly two decades after she became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize, Riot reflects Brooks’ later shift towards writing for a primarily Black audience.


AL 428.512. In memory of Edward David Quint, Class of 1925, LLB 1928, 1971.