More Than an Athlete: Jim Brown, Black Capitalism, and the Black Economic Union
Robert A. Bennett III
University Press of Kentucky
Black-Owned celebrates the living history of Black bookstores.
Packed with stories of activism, espionage, violence, community, and perseverance, Black-Owned starts with the first Black-owned bookstore, which an abolitionist opened in New York in 1834, and after the bookshop’s violent demise, Black book-lovers carried on its cause.
In the twentieth century, civil rights and Black Power activists started a Black bookstore boom nationwide. Later, Black bookstores became targets of FBI agents, police, and racist vigilantes. Still, stores continued to fuel Black political movements. Amid these struggles, bookshops were also places of celebration and today a new generation of Black activists is joining the radical bookstore tradition.
As Adams makes clear, in an time of increasing repression, Black bookstores are needed now more than ever.