About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherPenguin Publishing Group

ISBN-100593474236

ISBN-139780593474235

eBay Product ID (ePID)8074987497

Product Key Features

Number of Pages304 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameBlack-Owned : the Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore

SubjectCommunication Studies, Entrepreneurship, Social History, African American

Publication Year2025

TypeTextbook

AuthorChar Adams

Subject AreaLanguage Arts & Disciplines, Business & Economics, History

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height1.1 in

Item Weight13.2 Oz

Item Length8.5 in

Item Width5.7 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2025-015951

Reviews" Black-Owned needs to be read, especially by folks who've never been inside a Black-owned bookstore. I have and their effect on neighborhoods, on literacy, on getting kids reading, is amazing and inspiring. So is this passionate and honest book." -- James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Writer and The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians "A deeply researched, beautiful tribute, and a heartfelt history of the sometimes small, but always mighty Black bookshop." -- Evan Friss, New York Times bestselling author of The Bookshop

Dewey Edition23

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal323.119607309

SynopsisLongtime NBC News reporter Char Adams writes a deeply compelling and rigorously reported history of Black political movements told through the lens of Black-owned bookstores, which have been centers for organizing from abolition to the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter. In Black-Owned , Char Adams 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. Malcolm X gave speeches in front of the National Memorial African Book Store in Harlem--a place dubbed "Speakers' Corner"--and 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: Eartha Kitt and Langston Hughes held autograph parties at their local Black-owned bookstores. Maya Angelou became the face of National Black Bookstore Week. And today a new generation of Black activists is joining the radical bookstore tradition, with rapper Noname opening her Radical Hood Library in Los Angeles and several stores making national headlines when they were overwhelmed with demand in the Black Lives Matter era. As Adams makes clear, in an time of increasing repression, Black bookstores are needed now more than ever. Full of vibrant characters and written with cinematic flair, Black-Owned is an enlightening story of community, resistance, and joy., Black-Owned celebrates the history of Black bookstores and their role as centerpieces of resistance and liberation. Drawn from the author's in-depth research and reporting, Black-Owned is a story of activism, espionage, violence, and perseverance. Char Adams details Black bookstores' battles with racist vigilantes, local law enforcement, and federal agents as they fuelled Black political movements throughout American history. This history begins with David Ruggles, the abolitionist who founded the country's first Black-owned bookshop in New York in 1834, as well as the Black bibliophiles who carried the cause after the bookshop's violent demise. In the twentieth century, a Black bookstore boom led to the rise of many hubs for Civil Rights and Black Power activism. Malcolm X and W.E.B. DuBois would deliver speeches at the doorstep of National Memorial African Bookstore in Harlem, a place soon dubbed 'Speakers Corner.' Soon many bookstores in the 1960s became targets of the FBI and local law enforcement alike. Amid these struggles, bookshops were also places of celebration; Eartha Kitt and Langston Hughes held autograph parties at their local Black owned bookstore, and Maya Angelou even became the face of National Black Bookstore Week. Now, a new generation of Black activists are joining the radical bookstore tradition, with rapper Noname opening her Radical Hood Library in Los Angeles, and several stores hit national headlines when they were overwhelmed with demand in the wake of the brutal death of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives Matter movement. Today finds Black-owned bookshops in a position of strength - and as Adams will make clear, in an era of increasing division, their presence is needed now more than ever. Populated by vibrant characters, and written with cinematic flair, Black-Owned will be an enlightening story of community, resistance, and joy.

LC Classification NumberZ480.B58A33 2025