What to read this Black History Month: 5 Black-owned bookstore owners share their recommendations

The country’s first Black-owned bookstore was established nearly 200 years ago in Manhattan and served as a space for African Americans who were denied access to the city’s public libraries.

It was founded at 1 Cortlandt St. in 1834 by David Ruggles, a Black abolitionist, writer and publisher who played a lead role in the early network that would become the Underground Railroad. According to the David Ruggles Center for History and Education, the bookstore advertised and sold anti-slavery publications until a mob destroyed it.

Today, many Black-owned bookstores continue a tradition of being more than just purveyors of books.

This Black History Month, WNYC’s Community Partnerships Desk visited five Black-owned bookstores in the New York metro area and asked owners to share what inspired them to open their bookstores as well as their recommendations for essential reads. They also discussed how they worked to create spaces that advocate for diverse education, literacy and building community.

These conversations have been lightly edited for clarity and content.

Grandma’s Place

Dawn Harris Martine opened Grandma’s Place in Harlem in 1999 while she was still working as a New York City schoolteacher. She said she saw value in opening a space in her neighborhood that engaged residents in literacy and education.

How did you start?

Dawn: There was a vacant building right next door to my house and I did not want a laundromat or restaurant in there. So, I thought “what did this community need?” and I said, “it needed a literacy center” to teach parents and children to read.

I was going to name it the Kindred Literacy Center and my 7-year-old granddaughter said, “No grandma, it’s your place. It should be named Grandma’s Place.”

Initially, it was a literacy center. That’s all it was, because I was working as a New York City schoolteacher at the time, and I could only open at 3 o’clock…