Where to Find Black-Owned Bookstores Across the U.S.

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An NAACP flyer campaigning for the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 1922, but was filibustered to defeat in the Senate. Dyer, the NAACP, and freedom fighters around the country, like Flossie Baily, struggled for years to get the Dyer and other anti-lynching bills passed, to no avail. Today there is still no U.S. law specifically against lynching. In 2005, eighty of the 100 U.S. Senators voted for a resolution to apologize to victims' families and the country for their failure to outlaw lynching. Courtesy of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Some Exhibits to Come – One Hundred Years of Jim Crow

Bibliography – One Hundred Years Of Jim Crow

Claude, age 23, just months before his 1930 murder. Courtesy of Faith Deeter.

Freedom’s Heroes During Jim Crow: Flossie Bailey and the Deeters

Souvenir Portrait of the Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp, August 7, 1930, by studio photographer Lawrence Beitler. Courtesy of the Indiana Hisorical Society.

An Iconic Lynching in the North

Claxton Dekle – Prosperous Farmer, Husband & Father of Two

Ancient manuscripts about mathematics and astronomy from Timbuktu, Mali

Some Exhibits to Come – African Peoples Before Captivity

Shackles for Adults & Children from the Henrietta Marie

Some Exhibits to Come – The Middle Passage

What I Saw Aboard a Slave Ship in 1829

Life After Hate: A Former White Power Leader Redeems Himself

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January 9, 2026

Alecia Taylor, Capital B

Maati Primm, shown in her store, Marshall’s Music and Books, in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2022, said she’s seeing more Black families come into her shop to access books and parts of history that are no longer taught in schools. (Michael Goldberg/Associated Press)

Black-owned bookstores are popping up around the country, offering spaces and access to books that may not be on the shelves at chain bookstores.

Larger corporations like Amazon and Target sometimes sell books at a lower price compared to independent Black bookstores. Five bookstore owners told Capital B their stores provide community, something large corporations don’t.

The following are Black-owned bookstores to add to your shopping rotation, including recommendations from Capital B readers, and some of the stories behind them.

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