Fame for Writers of African Descent and the Mich-
igan Women’s Hall of Fame and received lifetime
achievement awards from the Furious Flower Po-
etry Center and the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for
Black Literature. Other awards include an Ameri-
can Book Award, a Michigan Artist Award, an
Alain Locke Award, a George Kent Award, a Cre-
ative Achievement Award, and the Black Scholar
Magazine Award of Excellence; in 1993 the Hilton-
Long Poetry Foundation offered its first annual
Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award for excellence
in a manuscript by an African-American poet. In
September 2000 she became Detroit’s poet laure-
ate. She published her autobiography Pilgrim Jour-
ney in 2006.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bailey, Leaonead Pack. Broadside Authors and Art-
ists: An Illustrated Biographical Directory. Detroit:
Broadside Press, 1974.
Redmond, Eugene B. Drumvoices: The Mission of
Afro-American Poetry. New York: Anchor/Double-
day, 1976.
Thompson, Julius E. Dudley Randall, Broadside Press,
and the Black Arts Movement in Detroit, 1960–
- Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1999.
Loretta G. Woodard
Madhubuti, Haki (Don Luther Lee)
(1942– )
Haki Madhubuti (born Don L. Lee) is, as GWEN-
DOLYN BROOKS described him, an artist, pioneer,
and “loyalist.” His active loyalty to black awareness
and community became influential during the late
1960s and has driven a prolific career since. Born
Don Luther Lee in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Feb-
ruary 23, 1942, he was raised poor in Detroit by
his mother, Maxine. Her early death from a drug
overdose forged an independent survivor in Lee,
who was adamant about racial solidarity and self-
help. He is the founder of Third World Press, a
million-dollar enterprise that publishes about 25
titles annually.
Madhubuti’s systematic and tireless study of
black literature began in high school, after he read
RICHARD WRIGHT’S BLACK BOY. He recalls his read-
ing of the book as a generative moment, as hav-
ing “introduced me to myself.” Madhubuti carried
his burgeoning awareness and black conservatism
into the U.S. Army (1960–1963), which informed
much of his early interest and posture in the BLACK
ARTS MOVEMENT. He began writing poetry in the
military to articulate his experiences and eventu-
ally carried his works to Crane Junior College in
1963, where he continued to produce poetry for
his first collections, Think Black! (1967) and Black
Pride (1968). While at Crane, Madhubuti became
apprentice to Margaret Burroughs at the DuSable
Museum of African History. His four years with
Burroughs, a Pan-African scholar, introduced
him to many prominent members of the African-
American arts community, including Gwendolyn
Brooks, who encouraged him to publish his own
work. Think Black and Black Pride result from this
period, both self-published and independently
distributed. Madhubuti sold his first 600 copies of
Think Black in one week, standing on the corner
of 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue on Chi-
cago’s South Side. After such wide reception and
positive response, he resolved to become a full-
time writer and independent publisher. Seeking
freedom to write critically without containment,
Madhubuti founded Third World Press with his
partner, Johari Amini, in a basement apartment on
Chicago’s southwest side. Formed to help nascent
writers receive literary recognition, the press is now
the nation’s oldest and most prolific independent
black book publisher. Third World Press authors
include Gwendolyn Brooks, SONIA SANCHEZ, AMIRI
BARAKA, Derrick Bell, and Chancellor Williams.
With more than 22 books of essays and poetry to
his own name, Madhubuti has proved himself a
prominent and potent poet in American letters,
fully independent of major publishing houses.
With his wife, Safisha, Madhubuti founded and
continues to direct the Institute of Positive Educa-
tion/New Concept Development Center (NCDC),
which, in its grade school, promotes an Afrocentric
curriculum. Children in preschool to third grade
recite the school’s pledge each morning: “We are
African people struggling for national liberation.
We are preparing leaders and workers to bringMadhubuti, Haki 325