🚨 TODAY IS THE DAY 🚨

Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore is finally here. There are so many people to thank, so many people who have held me through this journey. I am grateful. Grateful. Grateful. @jahbarchart.bsky.social

In the photo, from left: James McField, Dorothy McField, and Chester Owens (who has since passed away) in January 2023. They are standing in front of what used to be the bookstore. The shop is memorialized in the McFields’ personal museum in Wyandotte County.

This is The Hub, a Black-owned bookstore that ran in Kansas City from 1968-1975.

Couples James & Dorothy McField and Chester & Lillie Owens opened the store to provide Black books to their county.

Despite the hardships, owners said running the bookstore was some of the best years of their lives.

Thank you to the American Booksellers Association for having me and my curls at #WinterInstitute2025! (And for letting me say jawn during my keynote!)

Coates, a former Black Panther, and a few of his comrades opened The Black Book in 1972 to send books inside prisons and create jobs for incarcerated people after release.

The Black Book is part of George Jackson’s legacy. This is part of an FBI file targeting the store. #bhm

George Jackson was a revolutionary. He served 7 of an indeterminate prison sentence in solitary confinement. He founded the Black Guerilla Family (a Black power org) and championed liberation efforts from the inside. San Quentin prison guards killed him in 1971.

This is W. Paul Coates at The Black Book, the Maryland bookstore he founded as the HQ for the George Jackson Prison Movement.

I’m at #winterinstitute2025 this weekend!

I’m so excited to moderate this panel of amazing Black booksellers✊🏾📚 #WI2025

Annnndddd we have a cover! 📚

Pre-order is now available for “Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore.” It’s the first-ever full length book chronicling the history of Black-owned bookstores in the U.S.

Pre-order here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/734577...

On Audre Lorde’s birthday, I’m thinking about her Kitchen Table Press.

She (second from left), Barbara Smith, Cherrie Moraga and Hattie Gossett came together to establish a press centering feminist and lesbians of color — and it shook the publishing industry. #bhm

Ed Vaughn died in October 2024 at 90 years old. Today, his bookstore is listed in National Register of Historic Places.

I dive more into his story in my upcoming book “Black-Owned!”

📸 Bridge Detroit

Vaughn spent years in the book business and in politics — he was a state rep at one point, too!

He was one of several Black booksellers targeted by the FBI under COINTELPRO. His store was at the center of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.

Ed Vaughn was an activist and leader in his community. He helped organize the Detroit chapter of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)  and the Black nationalist group Forum ‘66.

The police hated him. When the 1967 uprising happened, cops didn’t hesitate to attack his store.

No store in the city sold more copies of the book and white booksellers told him it was out of print. That was a lie. Vaughn contacted the publisher, bought more copies and gave them to his friends.

He took it a step further and opened an entire bookstore.

If you’ve seen the book on the left, it’s likely because of the man on the right. No, he’s not the author. This is Ed Vaughn. He owned Vaughn’s Bookstore, considered to be Detroit’s first Black-owned bookstore. #BlackBookSky

I’m in love with my new author photos!🥹 📸 JerSean Golatt

It’s always wedding szn🤎

Babyyyy, them cookies they give you at the DoubleTree😩😩