Detroit Badman Archive Resources & Citations

How to Cite Citation Guide

Citing the Archive (Chicago):

Foster, Harry. "Detroit Badman Archive." 2026. https://detroitbadmanarchive.com.

Citing an Individual Entry (Chicago):

Foster, Harry. "[Figure Name]." Detroit Badman Archive. 2026. https://detroitbadmanarchive.com/[figure-id].

Citing the Archive (MLA):

Foster, Harry. Detroit Badman Archive. 2026, detroitbadmanarchive.com.

Citing the Archive (APA):

Foster, H. (2026). Detroit Badman Archive. https://detroitbadmanarchive.com

Primary Materials Primary Sources

Detective Modality

Sources coming soon as archive entries are completed.

Political Revolutionary Modality

Sources coming soon as archive entries are completed.

Scholarly Works Secondary Sources

Theoretical

Gates, Henry Louis. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism. Oxford University Press, 1988.

Roberts, John W. From Trickster to Badman: The Black Folk Hero in Slavery and Freedom. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.

Robinson, Cedric J. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. 3rd ed., University of North Carolina Press, 2020.

Spillers, Hortense J. "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book." Diacritics, vol. 17, no. 2, 1987, pp. 65-81.

Detective Modality

Bryant, Jerry H. Born in a Mighty Bad Land: The Violent Man in African American Folklore and Fiction. Indiana University Press, 2003.

Soitos, Stephen F. The Blues Detective: A Study of African American Detective Fiction. University of Massachusetts Press, 1996.

Political Revolutionary Modality

Ogbar, Jeffrey Ogbonna Green. Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019.

Van DeBurg, William L. New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965-1975. University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Image Credits Media & Photography

Tighe, Michael. Detroit Skyline. 26 September 2015. Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. commons.wikimedia.org.

Go Deeper Further Reading

For those seeking deeper engagement with the badman tradition and its scholarly context, we recommend exploring the works listed above as well as the following topics:

  • African American folklore and oral traditions
  • Critical race theory and legal studies
  • Black masculinity studies
  • Detroit labor history and the Black Power movement
  • Blaxploitation cinema and Black detective fiction

A curated reading list organized by topic will be added as the archive expands.