Black-Owned - by Char Adams (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

Black-Owned celebrates small businesses and their role in community building--and in liberation. Journalist Char Adams reports on how Black bookstores have always been centerpieces of resistance. This is a story of activism, espionage, violence, and perseverance. The first Black-owned bookstore was opened by an abolitionist in 1834. In the twentieth century, civil rights and Black Power activists started a Black bookstore boom nationwide. Malcolm X would deliver speeches at the doorstep of the National Memorial African Book Store in Harlem, a place dubbed "Speakers Corner." Soon many bookstores 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 made national headlines in the era of the 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 is an enlightening story of community, resistance, and joy.

Review Quotes

"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

"Black-Owned is a fierce, radiant love letter to the Black bookstore--a celebration of resistance and community. Char Adams has written a breathtakingly important book that ignites the spirit and demands to be read."
--Uché Blackstock, MD, New York Times bestselling author of Legacy

About the Author

Char Adams is a former reporter for NBC News and People. Her writing on race and identity has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Oprah Daily, Vice, Teen Vogue, and Bustle. She is a proud Philadelphia native and now lives in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.