[2] Broadside Press was founded in 1965 by the poet librarian Dudley Randall as a showcase for African American authors.

Early in the Press' history, Randall began by publishing 8.5x11 broadsides of single poems.

Through its history, Broadside Press published the works of Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker, Margaret Danner, Robert Hayden, Sterling Brown, Sonia Sanchez, Willie Kgositsile, Nikki Giovanni, Haki Madhubuti, Mae Jackson, Etheridge Knight, and Audre Lorde.

[6] The imprint published Black writers such as Herbert Woodward Martin, Dolores Kendrick, James A. Emanuel, Gayl Jones, Haki Madhubuti, May Miller, Toi Derricotte, and Dudley Randall.

In 1993 the national Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award was established to recognize and publish an outstanding manuscript by an African American poet.