In this blog post, Makoroba Sow, Schomburg Center Pre-Professional in the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, writes about the new Black Bookstore Research Guide, which contains a wealth of resources on Black-owned bookstores and book collectors, and the role they played  in preserving and curating  works that document that Black experience .

Historically, Black bookstores have served a special role within the Black community—bookstore owners were preservers and educators of Black history and culture, and the stores' physical space offered room for community building and political education. The Black Bookstore Research Guide highlights this rich tradition of Black-owned bookstores in the United States.

Significantly, the first known Black-owned bookstore was established by David Ruggles in 1834. An abolitionist contemporary of Frederick Douglass (see a Douglass essay that references Ruggles), David Ruggles used his bookstore at 67 Lispenard Street in New York City to further the cause for liberation. Today, there is renewed interest and revival of Black-bookstores.

The Black Bookstore Research Guide is intended to be an introduction into the cultural, historical, and political significance of the independently owned Black bookstore in the United States. The Guide is not an exhaustive list of the Schomburg's holdings relevant to the study of Black bookstores, nor is it an exhaustive guide to the entire subject of Black bookstores; rather, it is a curated list meant to encourage further exploration.

The Guide is organized into three main categories: the Black Book Collector, the Black Bookseller and Bookstore, and the Repression of the Black Bookstore. The resources presented span the collections of the Schomburg center divisions: Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference, Manuscripts. Archives and Rare Books, Photographs and Prints, and Moving Image and Recorded Sound.

Working on this research guide gave me the opportunity to highlight the Schomburg Clippings Files within the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division. The Clippings Files are a collection of print material across hundreds of subjects, dated from 1925 to 1989. Throughout the years, Schomburg librarians have thoughtfully and diligently curated the Clippings File and the collection offers a unique research experience. They can be accessed onsite by consulting with a librarian within the Research and Reference Division.

In developing the Black Bookstore Research Guide, I discovered one of the most interesting facts involved the multiple, complementary roles of the Black bookstore owner, by which the role of book collector and bookseller often converged. Many book collectors generously turned carefully curated collections into bookstores, with amazing and difficult-to-find Africana themed materials. Many booksellers were also book publishers and creators of book clubs, so they were working on multiple fronts to produce and distribute Black material. The Black bookstore has historically been, and will hopefully continue to be, an extremely dynamic institution.