Since its original publication in 1975, Detroit: I Do Mind Dying has been widely recognized as one of the most important books on the Black liberation movement and labor struggles in the United States.
The book tells the remarkable story of the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement, based in Detroit, and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, two of the most important, and underappreciated, Black radical organizations of the 1960s and 1970s.
Marvin Surkin, PhD, Political Science, New York University, New York, NY is a specialist in comparative urban politics and social change. He conducts workshops on Workplace and Community Organizing, Urban Political Economy, and Urban Renewal in the U.S.A. and its Significance for Development in the Third World, and Comparative Urban Architecture. Surkin worked at the center of the League of Revolutionary Black workers in Detroit.
Manning Marable (1950-2011) was a professor of public affairs, history and African-American Studies at Columbia University. Marable authored fifteen books including Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for History.
Publication date: October 20, 2026
“Detroit: I Do Mind Dying is a beautiful, riveting account of one of the most important radical movements of our century–a movement led by black revolutionaries whose vision of emancipation for all is sorely needed today.”
—Robin D.G. Kelley
“A historical narrative of the single most significant political experience of the 1960s.”
—Fredric Jameson
“First-rate and absolutely fascinating. This particular piece of American history has never been covered in such depth… everyone who is concerned with political change will learn a lot from this book.”
—New York Times
