Deborah's Journal

My father, Allan Ross, was a union organizer (International Typographical Union) and printer. Along with my mother, Jane Ross, and two colleagues, he founded a small publishing house (Graphic Arts of Marin) which supported politically progressive causes. He worked with the Black Panthers in the early 1970s and with Nathan Hare and Robert Chrisman (San Francisco State) on the early years of The Black Scholar magazine. With a small grant, my parents began a program called Books Behind Bars, offering free books on politics, sociology, black history, and related topics to black inmates. After my father's death in 1974, my mother continued BBB until the stock of books was exhausted. Many of these inmates wrote incredibly moving letters about how the books had changed their lives. I donated the collection of letters to Howard University, so that these stories would be preserved.

Now I'm delighted to see their work recognized, if briefly:


Bay Area radical printshops