Opened in February 2020, Harriett’s Bookshop’s mission is to celebrate and uplift Black female authors, activists, and artists. This disproportionately affects Black bookstores in particular, as they are often not in positions to negotiate on the level as some of their peers.Ī post shared by Harrietts Bookshop solution that Cook has employed is to build relationships directly with publishers and authors. Large companies swoop in to preorder books, leaving little to no opportunity for smaller bookstores to acquire new titles. Cook, of Harriett’s Bookshop in Philadelphia, PA, cites lack of access to books as a major challenge currently facing Black bookstores. Miller, from firsthand experience, describes the situation in more candid terms: “They ask us to jump through so many hoops, and when we do jump through the hoops, they still give us a small amount of the pie.” Blacks were less likely to have business bank loans compared with whites and Asian-owned businesses.” According to a 2018 Small Business Association report on financing patterns, “data show a greater reliance among minority-owned businesses on personal and family savings as a source of startup capital, despite wealth levels of Blacks being less than one-tenth those of non-Hispanic whites. Black business owners were barred from applying for and receiving, credit through traditional funding opportunities.īecause this institutional discrimination was never adequately addressed and corrected, Black business owners grapple with limited financing options (in relation to their white and Asian peers) even today. During this period, the centuries-long American crusade of oppression and subjugation of African American communities was in the Jim Crow phase. However, after the war, the government began extending credit to certain groups of entrepreneurs, according to Oxford Research Encyclopedias. Until World War I, the United States federal government mostly stayed out of private credit markets. The history of discrimination in lending services is longstanding and well-documented. “They want to know all your history, you have to have the perfect credit score, and all of that. “We do not get the opportunity to walk into a bank and say I need $50,000 to open up my business, or for capital, or to buy some inventory,” Miller told We Need Diverse Books. VaLinda Miller, owner of Turning Page Bookshop in Goose Creek, South Carolina, shares that the challenge begins at the financing stage. Of this number, a mere 6 percent of those are Black-owned. The Open Education Database reports that there are around 10,800 independent bookstores operating across the United States. Black-owned bookstores face a particularly unique set of challenges in light of these ongoing developments, and often meet new issues with creative solutions. In the era of Amazon, independent bookstores have realized the necessity to adapt to a changing world, one in which books can be ordered with the push of a button and with the promise of free two-day shipping. Want to support the #BlackLivesMatter movement but not sure where to start? Head here for a great list of resources, courtesy of Twitter.Read our list of Black-owned bookstores and other diverse independent bookstores you can support.Ĭommunity bookstores are hallowed places where ideas are shared, coffee is sipped, and patrons gather to indulge in the love of great books. Please let us know if we missed any! You can also find this information on Instagram. Harambee Books & Artworks, Alexandria, VA.The Black Reserve Bookstore, Lansdale, PA.Smith & Hannon Bookstore, Cincinnati, OH.Sankofa Video Books & Cafe, Washington, DCĪ post shared by Sister's Uptown Bookstore The Lit Bar, The Bronx, NY.The Multicultural Children’s Bookstore, Richmond, CA.Pyramid Art, Books, & Custom Framing, Little Rock, AR.If you want to find a store near you to support right now, take a look at our list below. Our friends at BuzzFeed books rounded up this incredible collection, along with staff recommendations and facts about each shop, so we highly recommend going over there to learn more. And because we are who we are, we thought it would help to round up the Black-owned bookstores that need our support right now. You can also support Black-owned businesses. You can head here to quickly and easily register to vote. You can donate, march, lift Black voices, and learn how to have difficult conversations with family, friends, or loose acquaintances on your Facebook feed. There are a lot of ways to fight racism, and it’s imperative that we’re all, at all times, doing whatever we can to dismantle the systems that have allowed it to fester for so long.
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