Herb Boyd has spent his life chronicling the Black experience in Detroit, tying the city’s fight for equality in with the overarching struggle with race in America.

For more than half a century, Boyd has been both a witness to and a participant in Detroit’s continuing struggle for justice.

His activism spans everything from civil rights volunteer work to marches against inequality, labor unions, and leading various grassroots organizations across the Metro – proof he’s a man who always practices what he preaches:

“If you want real change, you can’t just write about it.”

You have to be willing to get your hands dirty yourself.

Herb Boyd was raised in Birmingham and moved to Detroit with his family as a young child.

The Boyds settled on the city’s east side, where the automotive industry, black migration, and civil rights activism were all coming to a head at the same time.

The son of native Detroiters, Boyd grew up during a time when racism and inequality were sadly the norm for Black Americans.

Boyd, however, refused to let any of it have a lasting negative effect on him, and it was only through his struggles that he found his anchors: books, community, and activism.

Boyd pursued a career in writing about race, politics, and the struggles of the black community.

He has published work in everything from “The Amsterdam News” to “The New York Times,” always focusing on giving a spotlight to Black voices.

Unlike most journalists, however, Boyd didn’t just report on what was going on.

He got involved himself, immersing himself in the streets during civil rights uprisings, interviewing leaders and everyday citizens, and telling Detroit’s story to a national audience.

He firmly believes that journalism exists for the purpose of engagement, challenging people, and helping the community as a whole work towards establishing a sense of justice and dignity.

Outside of journalism and community activism, Boyd has decades of teaching experience under his belt, first at Wayne State University and later at the City College of New York, where he taught everything from journalism to African American history.

That said, he wasn’t just a professor.

Many of his former students regard him as more of a mentor – one who helped connect what he taught in his classes to real-world experience.

According to Boyd, history isn’t just found within textbooks.

Its spirit is alive and well in Detroit’s neighborhoods and civil rights leaders, many of whom have been largely ignored by mainstream narratives.

Over the course of his career, Boyd has also published over two dozen books on African American history and the role Detroit has played in it.

Take “Black Detroit: The People’s History of Self-Determination”, for instance – a literary journey tracing the history of the city’s Black population from slavery to the Great Migration to labor struggles to Motown into the modern era.

His books are regarded not just as scholarly, but as intimate, with many of his stories about people Herb personally knew and lived among at the height of Detroit’s civil rights era.

For Boyd, writing is about testimony – not just feeding his own ego. That said, his own story is intricately tied in with the city that raised him.

He has chronicled Detroit’s highs and lows, its victories and wounds, its leaders, and everyday people with a critical yet loving voice.

For Detroiters, Herb Boyd is more than just a journalist or an author – he’s a chronicler, one who brings its history, its struggles, and its triumphs to life in a way that always feels authentic.

Victoria Jackson (Editor In Chief)

Victoria Jackson is a lifelong student and sharp-eyed documentarian of all things Detroit, from its rich musical roots and cultural icons to its shifting neighborhoods, storied architecture, and underground legends. With her finger firmly on the pulse of both the city’s vibrant past and its rapidly unfolding future, she brings a deeply personal, historically grounded lens to every piece she writes.

Published on: August 22, 2025