We are proud to partner with the following organizations to help serve our authors and community.
Forefront Books and Worth Media Announce Partnership NASHVILLE, Tenn., Nov. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Worth Media announces the company's expansion into book publishing through a joint venture with Forefront Books. The imprint, Worth Books, will create a solution for...
Read moreTHE NEW FREDERICK DOUGLASS BOOKS PUBLISHING IMPRINT PROVIDES A SPOTLIGHT AND FOCUS ON DIVERSE VOICES
NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Forefront Books and the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives have announced a new joint publishing imprint. The Frederick Douglass Books publishing imprint is an effort to establish a pathway for Black and Brown authors to write and publish a professional book with distribution into traditional retailers.
"A goal of Forefront Books from the beginning was to provide a way to serve the black and brown community through a publishing platform," said Jonathan Merkh, President of Forefront Books. "The Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives is the perfect partner with no greater legacy on which to build. Mr. Douglass found ways to cross tough racial and partisan divides and have meaningful dialogue for the greater good."
With the large disparity in the amount of Black and Brown authors in the book publishing industry, the Frederick Douglass Books imprint will continue the educational work of Frederick Douglass by giving an opportunity to those with a message for the world.
"My great-great-great-grandfather, Frederick Douglass, published Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, in 1845. He understood the vital importance of telling his story and amplifying the voices of enslaved and oppressed peoples," said Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., co-founder, and president of FDFI. "His NorthStar abolitionist newspaper and best-selling autobiography helped nurture a revolution to end slavery in the United States." Morris continued, "It is my hope that the Frederick Douglass Books imprint will carry on his legacy of education, activism, and liberation commentary and provide a platform for Black and Brown authors to publish their own narratives."
The Frederick Douglass Books imprint will primarily feature nonfiction works on topics such as: business, self-help, memoirs and history. The first book featured under the imprint will be Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, a book the Library of Congress named one of the eighty-eight "Books That Shaped America". Published in 1845, Douglass's first autobiography became an instant bestseller and, having escaped slavery just seven years earlier, put his life in immediate danger. The Narrative helped change the course of the U.S. Abolitionist Movement in the mid-nineteenth century and has changed the lives of readers
ever since.
Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives wants to inspire and empower one million young people to do and be more than they ever dreamed possible. In honor of Douglass's 200th birthday, they published the Bicentennial Edition of the Narrative. FDFI intends to print and distribute one million hardcover copies of this special edition to students across the country.
About Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives:
Since its inception in 2007, Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives has been advocating for a more equitable world on the issues of human trafficking and racism. Co-founded by direct descendants of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington, FDFI is headquartered in Rochester, NY — a place Frederick Douglass once called home.
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