Black-owned book shops not only promote independent authors, they often double as meeting spaces, art galleries, and affordable vendor marketplaces for the community.
Black-owned bookstores provide pathways to imagining new worlds — or just our escaping our own — prioritizing Black stories and storytellers consistently in a country that once considered it illegal for Black people to have the right to read.
Literacy is one of the most important paths to power. Black-owned book shops not only promote independent authors and distribute publications that are not widely available, they often double as meeting spaces, art galleries, and affordable vendor marketplaces for the neighborhood in which they are located.
Like many retail-based businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic and rising commercial rents threaten their ability to continue providing vital services which makes supporting these stores even more crucial at this time. See 15 Black-owned bookstores you can visit in your city or shop online below.
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Fulton Street Books
Onikah Asamoa-Caesar opened this book store in Tulsa, Oklahoma to aid in building representation, literacy, and community.
Ramunda Young, Mahogany Young, and Derrick Young opened this family-owned bookstore in 2007 to make it easier for readers to locate work written by and focused on Black people across the diaspora. It is located in Washington, DC.
Warren, Cheryl, and Allyce Lee wanted to provide access to the “richness, diversity and genius of Black expression,” with their bookstore in Atlanta, Georgia. They settled on opening the store after Cheryl proposed their business plan as her thesis.
