Between the failure of the Small Business Administration pandemic relief programs and Amazon’s huge presence in online book sales, already vulnerable Black-owned bookstores are left unprotected in a society that needs them.
When Detroit native Lauren Thomas and her mother opened a children’s bookstore in 2006, they wanted to create a space where customers could fellowship and feel a sense of pride in their Blackness. Thomas worked at major retail bookstores before but believed co-owning an independent bookstore was a way to take an active role in providing a space for Black consumers of all ages to form real connections. Thomas saw those connections crystalize in 2008 when Barack Obama became president and book and merchandise sales skyrocketed.
“I lost count of how many Barack Obama children’s picture books came out,” says Thomas. “People were spending $20 on hardcover picture books who had never done that before. Barack Obama merchandise in Detroit was on every corner, in every beauty salon. You had to get your sparkly shirt, your earrings, hats, all of that. It was an Obama economy in 2008.”
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Thomas says owning a Black bookstore on the heels of a newly elected Black president was not only a rewarding experience for her and her mother, but it was also a significant cultural moment for Black Americans. “There was so much hope in 2008 because of everything that election represented,” she said.
Now, Thomas is a community legal advocate working on prison abolition, and the bookstore she once owned alongside her mother has since closed. Thomas attributes the closure in 2009 to a rapidly gentrifying Detroit. She cites a lack of financial opportunities available to Black bookstore owners at the time.
“We were at the cusp of gentrification, which also means we were at the cusp of funding. Literally, a year after we closed, there were all these grants and different contests. We couldn’t even get a loan back in 2009. Not saying that things are super easy now, but there are a lot more community initiatives that are more well-funded.”
She’s not wrong. The recession of 2009 saw 60% of Black-owned businesses close their doors for good. Racial disparities also grew among business owners of color seeking capital to recover. According to a 2010 report by the US Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency, compared to white business owners, business owners of color were less likely to receive loans, more likely to be denied loans, and more likely not to apply for loans out of fear of being denied. Though more opportunities are available for struggling Black business owners in 2020, largely due to the pandemic, racial disparities and inequities persist.
Black booksellers also find themselves facing a new set of realities trying to survive the pandemic while meeting the demands of a growing customer base eager to buy books about race. Due to the current Black Lives Matter movement sparked by the murder of George Floyd, consumer enthusiasm for Black-authored books surged this year (with more Black authors on the New York Times’ bestseller list than in previous years). Still, Black-owned bookstores struggle to keep up with consumer expectations and demands.
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The current state of Black-owned bookstores has a lot to do with issues of access and awareness. Aside from the everyday vulnerabilities, small businesses confront, Black enterprises lack access to capital to keep businesses afloat in precarious times. Often consumers might not even be aware that Black bookstores exist in their communities. Because pandemic restrictions limit in-person operations, consumers don’t benefit from having access to bookstores’ physical space. While Black authors are selling books, Black booksellers remain at risk of falling behind competitors with deeper pockets, more access, and greater visibility regardless of physical space.
Black businesses in the US are often the hardest hit during a recession, but they’re at risk even under normal circumstances. Between systemic racism making generational wealth more of a dream than a reality for Black people and the devaluation of businesses in Black communities, Black businesses are often on the margins financially. In 2019, only 42% of Black-owned businesses in the US were considered financially healthy by the New York Fed compared to 73% of white-owned businesses. Without financial health and access to capital, Black-owned businesses simply didn’t have the banking relationships to access the Paycheck Protection Program offered by the government to help business owners survive the pandemic.
The New York Times reported that Black business owners faced discrimination trying to access the $660 billion program intended to help small businesses. Out of all the Small Business Administration pandemic-relief programs, only 12% of Black and Latino entrepreneurs who applied for one received assistance. Half of those owners say they’ll have to shutter permanently.
So far, the results of the government’s failed assistance programs on Black-owned businesses are startling. According to the New York Fed, 41% of Black business owners closed their doors for good since the beginning of the pandemic. There’s also fierce competition in the publishing industry—giants with no lack of funds and who ship quickly and often.
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Joshua Clark Davis, assistant professor of Legal, Ethical and Historical Studies at the University of Baltimore and author of From Head Shops to Whole Foods: The Rise and Fall of Activist Entrepreneurs, points to major competitors like Amazon as threats to the future of Black bookstores.
“Amazon has really hurt Black-owned and independent bookstores of all kinds,” he said. “Amazon was coming on the heels of what Barnes and Nobles and Borders was doing to Black-owned bookstores, but there’s been growing awareness within the last five years or so that people really have to fight for Black-owned bookstores if they want to keep them.”
The significance of Black-owned bookstores extends beyond just selling books. They function as public spaces for learning, community building, and consciousness-raising—something Thomas says Amazon can’t compete with. “In Black spaces, it’s safe there. There’s optimism there. It’s shared. It’s not siloed. It’s not just on the Internet,” she said. “You’re in a physical space with at least one other person who feels the same way you do. I’ve never been to a Black-owned bookstore anywhere in this country that was not part of the community.”
Black-owned bookstores have always been at the helm of social movements. Despite struggling over the last twenty years, Davis says Black-owned bookstores remain a distinctive feature of the current movement for racial justice, just as they did during the Black Power Movement of the 1960s.
“The big boom was in the 1960s and the Black Power Movement,” said Davis. “A lot of Black bookstore owners were activists first and foremost. They saw bookselling as a way to get their message out, to organize. Obviously, the huge surprise this year is that COVID has totally devastated our world. Then with the killing of George Floyd and the biggest outpouring of political protest this country has seen. It’s just been amazing to see how many different stores exploded and are still getting good business.”
Black bookstores have been such a key institution in Black political power that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover ordered widespread investigations of Black bookstores for fear they served as secret meeting places.
The cultural shift in 2008 was a moment that mirrored the collective rise in political and racial consciousness of the late 60s as well as the current Black Lives Matter movement. Today, however, Black bookstores cannot sustain long-term off temporary surges in interest, like the one in 2008 and the current anti-racist movement. Without infrastructure investments into Black communities and financing solutions that give Black entrepreneurs equal access, they’ll remain at risk. Thomas says Black-owned bookstores’ survival requires people from all walks of life to emphasize their importance and ultimately support them.
“Black bookstores are intentionally important,” she said. “Similar to how we talk about essential work and essential items [during the pandemic], we have to decide how essential books are to us culturally.” In other words, Thomas asks, “how essential do we as a society deem books to be?”
The answer to that question may very well dictate consumer spending and impact how the government and philanthropy move forward with pandemic relief in a post-COVID19 society. Time will tell, however, what ways they’ll wield their power.
The approximately 70 Black-owned bookstores still left in the US, down from more than 200 in the 90s, are depending on that answer.
Tara L. Conley Tara L. Conley is an assistant professor in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. Learn more by visiting www.taralconley.org, and on Twitter @taralconley.
