By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Seventy-five pairs of eyes gazed upon a quilt of firsthand stories of Africans in America as editor Herb Boyd introduced his latest book, "Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African American History Told by Those Who Lived It."

"I took my favorite pieces and stitched them together to record our history," said Mr. Boyd about the anthology.

An activist, lecturer, professor and journalist, Herb Boyd came home to DC 37 Jan. 22 as part of the Authors' Talk series presented by the union's Education Fund.

Ed Fund Administrator Barbara Kairson warmly welcomed Boyd, who teaches at the DC 37 Campus of the College of New Rochelle, the New York Theological Seminary and New York University.

The night also marked DC 37's first Internet presentation as Mr. Boyd and program participants logged onto www.TBWT.com, the website of "The Black World Today," the award-winning news and information web site he edits. Later Mr. Boyd fielded questions from the audience.

"Autobiography of a People," with its forward by Gordon Parks, gives voice to a wide range of historical figures. Boyd includes Equiano, one of the first Africans on American shores; the maligned "Scottsboro Boys" and a young Corretta Scott, who, swept off her feet by Martin Luther King Jr., set aside her own aspirations to live for his dream.

"The challenge occurred as we moved into the 20th century," said Boyd, who searched tirelessly for literary narratives.

The book examines the gamut of Black politics from the theoretical convergence of Dr. King and Malcolm X late in the civil rights struggle to Al Sharpton's persistent cries for justice and peace some 40 years later.

It includes the twilight reflections of W.E.B. DuBois, near the end of 95 years of scholarship and struggle, and the evolution of American music from Jelly Roll Morton to LL Cool J.

Boyd said he writes for his mother, who migrated from Alabama to earn $5 a day building motor cars and war tanks in Detroit factories, and countless others whose sacrifices have long been ignored by historians.

Their stories, he said, are "part of the glorious quilt odyssey of African American experience that must be told until we have the full tapestry."