Get ready to dive into a world of literary adventure - Atlanta is home to an incredible selection of Black-owned bookstores, each one brimming with everyday finds and unique gems. Not only will you find a diverse selection of literature, but you’ll also be supporting the community and experiencing the warm and welcoming atmosphere these bookstores offer. So, grab your wallet, and get ready to hit the shelves at one of these Black-owned bookstores.
Historically, Black-owned bookstores have served as a meeting place for community activities, activism, and literacy programs. While they only make up about six percent of the 2,500 independent bookstores in the nation, this number has increased from an all-time low of 54 stores in 2014 to 149 bookstores in 2023.
Atlanta, a city with a rich history and vibrant culture, is home to several Black-owned bookstores that serve as community hubs.
The Rise of Black Bookstores: A Historical Perspective
As late as 1966, most American cities-including major centers of black population such as Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Oakland, and New Orleans-had not had a single black-oriented bookstore. Each of the country’s largest cities and centers of black population, including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles, could claim one or in some cases two black-interest bookstores, most of which struggled to stay in business. Just a few years later, however, black bookstores were booming.
Between 1965 and 1979, the number of black-themed bookstores in the United States skyrocketed from around a dozen to somewhere between seventy-five and one hundred. Indeed, the very idea that black people needed their own bookstores drew directly on black-nationalist values of institutional and community control. Radical African American bookstores established in the late 1960s and 1970s sought to advance three core principles of the Black Power movement.
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First and foremost, black booksellers promoted African American political reeducation and knowledge of self through books, pamphlets, and journals on black nationalism and pan-Africanism. Books, activists argued, could empower black Americans to recover their lost heritage and history as proud peoples of the African diaspora. As Maulana Karenga, the founder of the US Organization declared, “Nationalism demands study. Show me a true Nationalist and I’ll show you someone who studies.” A surge of political activism and racial pride provided new opportunities for African American entrepreneurs to capitalize on black consumers in search of books on these subjects.
The vast majority of black bookstores functioned as information centers for the Black Power movement, providing visitors with access to a growing body of writings of and about the movement as well as writings on black culture and history more generally. Second, black booksellers positioned their stores as a new generation of black public spaces, welcoming a wide range of customers, activists, and curious community members. Like other activist businesses, black booksellers understood their shops as “free spaces,” that is, sites of liberation that incubated a culture of activism and solidarity.
Booksellers provided spaces to a wide range of African Americans, including activist groups wishing to hold meetings and distribute their own locally produced media and flyers, authors and poets who gave public readings, and reading groups that met to discuss books. In short, bookstores functioned as black community centers, not entirely unlike other cherished black businesses such as barber shops and beauty salons.
Third, many African American booksellers rejected the idea that black businesses’ primary goal was to accumulate capital. They argued that black entrepreneurs instead had a responsibility to affirm racial pride, celebrate black history and identity, and promote connections with Africa. These activist retailers unabashedly criticized capitalism in general as well as the particular tradition of black business enterprise advocated by Booker T. Washington.
Independent African American booksellers, like the owners of most small bookstores, earned the slimmest of margins, if they profited at all. Most of the entrepreneurs who operated black-interest bookstores were not experienced businesspeople but rather had extensive backgrounds in leftist and black-nationalist politics, or they were teachers or writers or bibliophiles. African American booksellers were much more than small business owners. In the late 1960s and 1970s, a successful black bookstore could bring together the campaigns for black politics, black arts, black studies, black community control, and black economic empowerment into the space of a single business.
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Black-Owned Bookstores in Atlanta
Atlanta, often hailed as the "Black Mecca," is home to several Black-owned bookstores that contribute to the city's rich cultural and intellectual landscape. These bookstores not only offer a diverse selection of literature but also serve as vital community hubs.
Here are a few notable Black-owned bookstores in Atlanta:
1. 44th and 3rd Bookseller
Explore a diverse world of authors from the African diaspora at 44th & 3rd Bookseller, a Black-owned bookstore adjacent to Morehouse School of Medicine. It offers a wide selection of rare and classic books and a reading room where engaging with Black literature is easily accessible to anyone interested. 44th & 3rd Bookseller was started by Warren, Cheryl, and Allyce Lee in 2017 to be a source for an unbiased and diverse collection of Black literature.
2. For Keeps Books
If Rosa Duffy has her way, For Keeps!, the store for rare and classic black books she opened in late 2018, will evolve into a long-standing neighborhood treasure. "Atlanta was the only place to do it,” she said. “It’s home and I wanted it to represent the vastness of blackness and allow people to read about their history in a welcoming space.” Her narrow store features not only rare, hard-to-find and classic books by African and African American authors, but also album covers from a bygone era, unique artifacts and iconic black magazines like Jet that represent a meaningful period and stir nostalgia.
“It’s the epitome of a safe space,” Duffy said. “It is open to varying opinions. It has an energy that allows you to speak. People engage there. That’s the best thing about it, something I did not expect. People talk to each other because of what they see and feel being there.”
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Robert A. Brown, a finance lawyer and an adjunct professor at Morehouse College, said: “With the advent of online bookstores, people search for books that they are already familiar with. What For Keeps does is almost like an interactive art museum of black thought. People often walk in, read a book and are exposed to new ideas, rather than searching for only what they are familiar with. Plus, every time I am there, I get a chance to talk about current events in black life with other thoughtful and artistic folks.”
Duffy talks about books as a chef does about food or a musician about sound: with unencumbered delight. Finding a rare book by one of her favorite artists, Carrie Mae Weems, made her ecstatic. So did a copy of Ceasar D. Coleman’s “Beyond Blackness to Destiny,” which was published in 1969.
Born in Atlanta, Duffy lives within walking distance of her store, which is walking distance of the Auburn Avenue Research Library, the Atlanta Life Building, the Apex Museum, her childhood church, First Congregational, where she was confirmed, Ebenezer . . . and so much history that makes Atlanta the Black Mecca.
“Having the store where it is was intentional,” she said. “I am in the middle of so much history. Auburn Avenue is an important street. And I still feel the spirit of Auburn Avenue.” Duffy’s awareness may be attributed to genetics. Her father, Eugene Duffy, is a Morehouse College graduate who worked for three Atlanta mayors. Her mother graduated from Spelman College and is a book lover as well. Her sister, Josie Duffy Rice, is a lawyer and president at The Appeal, a nonprofit criminal justice publication. And her grandmother is Dr. Josie Johnson, who wrote a book on fair housing in Minnesota.
Her family and savings provided the funds to open For Keeps. Rosa Duffy’s commitment keeps it going.
3. Medu Bookstore
Medu, meaning “the power of the word,” is the second largest African-American owned bookstore in Atlanta, Georgia. “It is an awesome source of Black History, Heritage and Culture. The staff was friendly and kind! The store had a wide selection of books.
These bookstores are more than just retail spaces; they are cultural hubs that foster community, preserve history, and promote literacy. They provide a platform for Black voices and contribute to the intellectual and cultural vibrancy of Atlanta.
Kansas City bookstore owner specializes in books about Black people and their culture
Sweet Auburn was also home to the nation’s first African American daily newspaper, the Atlanta Daily World, founded in 1928 by W.A. Scott.
In conclusion, African American bookstores are much more than small business owners. In the late 1960s and 1970s, a successful black bookstore could bring together the campaigns for black politics, black arts, black studies, black community control, and black economic empowerment into the space of a single business.
