Black Study

This zine situates study itself as an act of defiance, remembrance and freedom work by tracing the enduring legacy of David Walker’s An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829), a radical pamphlet calling for Black resistance, self-determination, and liberation. Through archival photographs of Black people studying across generations—including images from Mariame Kaba’s personal newswire collection—Black Study meditates on the long lineage of intellectual and political struggle sparked by Walker’s words. Banned and denounced in its time, The Appeal nevertheless circulated widely, fueling abolitionist movements and shaping the philosophies of Black nationalism, civil rights, and direct action.

Mariame Kaba is an organizer, educator, librarian/archivist, and prison industrial complex (PIC) abolitionist who is active in movements for racial, gender, and transformative justice. Kaba co-leads Interrupting Criminalization, an organization she co-founded with Andrea Ritchie in 2018. She has co-founded multiple organizations and projects over the years including Project NIA, We Charge Genocide, the Chicago Freedom School, the Chicago Taskforce on Violence against Girls and Young Women, Chicago Alliance to Free Marissa Alexander (now Love & Protect), Just Practice Collaborative, Survived & Punished, Sojourners for Justice Press and For the People Lefitist Library Project. Kaba is the author of the New York Times Bestseller We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice (Haymarket Books, 2021) & most recently Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care with Kelly Hayes (Haymarket, 2023) among several other books that offer support and tools for repair, transformation, and moving toward a future without incarceration and policing.

ISBN: 9798888908662

Publication date: May 12, 2026