A group dedicated to supporting Black-owned bookstores unveiled its first report during a conference in Pittsburgh this week.
The National Association of Black Bookstores, or “NAB2,” formed less than a year ago with a mission to help stores grow and amplify the voices of the Black community in the literary industry.
NAB2 unveiled the State of the Black Bookstore report during the American Booksellers Association Winter Institute.
The group found there are 306 such businesses across the country — up from just 54 in 2014. But 14 states have no Black-owned bookstores.
Yvonne Blake, owner of Hakim’s Bookstore in Philadelphia, said these spaces are important.
“ Because we educate and teach people about the history that is so often hidden or not told to — not just African Americans — but to everyone,” Blake said.
Pittsburgh is home to two Black bookstores: The Tiny Bookstore, which has a storefront in the North Hills, and The Young Dreamers Bookstore, which operates as a pop-up.
More than a third of Black-owned bookstores nationwide operate without a permanent brick and mortar location.
Young Dreamers Founder Nosakhere Griffin-EL said he’s excited to be part of a larger network and learn from long-time booksellers about best practices and how to move into a permanent location.
“ Most importantly, it’s a movement to help communities use books to transform the world, to make the world a better place,” Griffin-EL said.
Young Dreamers carries books for children that predominantly feature Black protagonists. Griffin-EL said it’s important for kids to be able to see themselves in characters and who they could be. He said he saw this through reading with his own children.
“When we allowed them to pick a book based upon who they wanted to be or what they were interested in, then what we realized is that the reading experience became beautiful, became easier to do,” Griffin-EL said.
Janet Webster Jones, who owns Source Booksellers in Detroit, said NAB2 started just at the right time to help lead Black bookstores “down a larger path of service and community.
“Books… are a gateway to imagination, to understanding, to empathy, and to knowledge. And without that, we can’t be human,” Webster Jones said.
The report found challenges for Black booksellers include barriers to financing for start-up costs, low revenue, exclusion from author tours, and neighborhood gentrification that can shift the customer base.
NAB2 Vice President Onikah Asamoa-Caesar said she hopes the report brings visibility to Black bookstores and gets business owners to think about their collective impact.
She said having the association to connect entrepreneurs who face similar challenges will help sustain the industry.
“ I think it’s exciting to know that future booksellers won’t necessarily have to go it alone,” Asamoa-Caesar said.
NAB2 was founded by former NBA player and Sacramento, Calif. mayor Kevin Johnson in an effort to honor his mother’s legacy. She owned Underground Books in Sacramento from 2003 until her death in 2024.
Johnson said his mom believed, “ There should be places where kids can buy books and there should be story time where parents can bring their kids in, get a book and read together. And there should be a place for local authors who aren’t big names, and there should be a place for big name authors to come and do book readings and have author talks.”
NAB2 has created an online directory of stores across the county.
Johnson said his goals for the next year are to increase association membership, fundraise $1 million for staff and programming, and to hold 24 author events at Black bookstores across the country. The author series will kick off in May at Underground Books with crime novelist Walter Mosely.