Something to Do with Power

Approx. 304 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, notes, bibl., index

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-8513-7
Published: June 2025
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-8512-0
Published: June 2025

John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture

Paperback Available June 2025, but pre-order your copy today!

Buy this Book

To purchase online via an independent bookstore, visit Bookshop.org

Unlike his more well-known contemporaries such as Malcolm X and Maya Angelou, Julian Hudson Mayfield (1928–1984) has remained on the periphery of mainstream historical narratives. Yet his extensive intellectual archive has been a vital resource for historians exploring Black radicalism. By centering Mayfield's lived experiences across five decades and four continents, this book offers a unique lens into the complex intersections of Black communism, Black nationalism, and Black internationalism during the Cold War era.

Something to Do with Power highlights the importance of Mayfield's story of mutual interest and solidarity in shaping literary and political activism, offering a fresh examination of the Black left's role in American culture. His legacy as a writer, propagandist, and artist committed to resisting the domination of white supremacy underscores his significant, though underappreciated, contribution to American history.

About the Author

David Romine is lecturer of history at Winston-Salem State University.

For more information about David Romine, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"By rescuing a dedicated and principled participant in the global Black liberation struggle, Romine's work offers a welcome contribution to the scholarship on the nexus between Black militancy, literary nationalism, Black arts, and radicalism."—Christopher M. Tinson, Saint Louis University

"Julian Mayfield has deserved a book-length treatment for some time now, and David Romine has the storytelling and analytical skills to do him justice. This book will change how scholars understand the domestic and international dimensions of Black power."—Benjamin Talton, Howard University