Imperium in Imperio: A Study of the Negro Race Problem

Griggs financed the book's publication himself and sold copies door to door, a self-distribution model he continued when he founded the Orion Publishing Company for his later novels in 1901; the preface is dated 'Berkley, Va., March 1, 1899.' The novel depicts a secret Black shadow government operating within the United States, making it one of the earliest works of African American political and utopian fiction