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Black-Owned

The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore

Author Char Adams On Tour
Read by Shayna Small
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On sale Nov 04, 2025 | 7 Hours and 30 Minutes | 9798217161492
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Longtime 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.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF with a list of recommended books and a guide for finding Black-owned bookstores by state.
“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

“Black-owned bookstores are part of a larger history that brought together people like my grandparents during the Civil Rights Movement, where they joined study groups to discuss revolutionary texts and learn how to organize. These convening spaces of fellowship, teaching, and celebration played a vital role then, and modern pioneers like For Keeps Books show us what is possible — and needed — right now.”
—Meena Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ambitious Girl

“Char Adams’s comprehensive history of Black bookstores in the U.S. is long overdue. The book is meticulously researched and the stories are engrossing. Grab a cup of tea and learn about David Ruggles’s early 19th century bookstore and stay through the golden age of Black bookselling. What a gift!”
—Mariame Kaba, New York Times bestselling author of We Do This ‘Til We Free Us

“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

“This pioneering study features exemplary research, deep explication of historical context, and engaging human-interest narratives as Adams makes the case that Black-owned bookstores are particularly resilient because they are community-oriented… An excellent history that will make a fine addition to public and university libraries.”
—Library Journal, starred review

“An illuminating history of America’s Black-owned bookstores… This will hold immense appeal for bibliophiles.”
—Publishers Weekly

"Adams chronicles the courageous, determined, and tenacious people who ran legendary bookstores across the country... Despite overt racism, gentrification, and the online, revolution, the Black bookstore will never vanish.”"
—Booklist

“An enlightening history for students of the Black experience and readers of books about books.”
—Kirkus
© JerSean Golatt
Char Adams is a former reporter for NBC News and for 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. View titles by Char Adams

About

Longtime 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.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF with a list of recommended books and a guide for finding Black-owned bookstores by state.

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

“Black-owned bookstores are part of a larger history that brought together people like my grandparents during the Civil Rights Movement, where they joined study groups to discuss revolutionary texts and learn how to organize. These convening spaces of fellowship, teaching, and celebration played a vital role then, and modern pioneers like For Keeps Books show us what is possible — and needed — right now.”
—Meena Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ambitious Girl

“Char Adams’s comprehensive history of Black bookstores in the U.S. is long overdue. The book is meticulously researched and the stories are engrossing. Grab a cup of tea and learn about David Ruggles’s early 19th century bookstore and stay through the golden age of Black bookselling. What a gift!”
—Mariame Kaba, New York Times bestselling author of We Do This ‘Til We Free Us

“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

“This pioneering study features exemplary research, deep explication of historical context, and engaging human-interest narratives as Adams makes the case that Black-owned bookstores are particularly resilient because they are community-oriented… An excellent history that will make a fine addition to public and university libraries.”
—Library Journal, starred review

“An illuminating history of America’s Black-owned bookstores… This will hold immense appeal for bibliophiles.”
—Publishers Weekly

"Adams chronicles the courageous, determined, and tenacious people who ran legendary bookstores across the country... Despite overt racism, gentrification, and the online, revolution, the Black bookstore will never vanish.”"
—Booklist

“An enlightening history for students of the Black experience and readers of books about books.”
—Kirkus

Author

© JerSean Golatt
Char Adams is a former reporter for NBC News and for 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. View titles by Char Adams

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From the Author

Dear Librarians: A Letter from Char Adams, Author of Black-Owned

As I prepare now to release Black-Owned, my greatest hope is that readers will find in these stories that same sense of community. My hope is we will gain a deeper understanding of just how much we need one another. Prison abolitionist and organizer Mariame Kaba often says, “Everything worthwhile is done with other people.”

Read more

Dear Librarians: A Letter from Char Adams, Author of Black-Owned

From the Author

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