The Summer Reads That Black Bookstore Owners Are Recommending

Twenty years ago, there were 325 black-owned bookstores across the United States. By 2012, that total had fallen to 54. Though the number has roughly doubled in recent years, Black-owned bookstores, like all Black-owned businesses, occupy a precarious space in their neighborhoods in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

One way that activists in the Black Lives Matter demonstrations have encouraged their fellow Americans to educate themselves and their children about the Black experience is to purchase books from these Black-focused and -owned bookstores. They remain a crucial presence in the communities they serve, as well as a lifeline for the authors they support. Though many have been closed due to the coronavirus, their books remain available for purchase online.