{"id":301147,"date":"2025-06-19T00:57:51","date_gmt":"2025-06-19T00:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/the-past-present-and-future\/"},"modified":"2025-06-19T00:57:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T00:57:51","slug":"the-past-present-and-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147","title":{"rendered":"The Past, Present, and Future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/progressive.org\/downloads\/21893\/download\/ProsetothePeople2.jpg?cb=cd844a7f2abf7d3c65dbee48d793a6f9\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"lead\">It was back in 2017 that I finally visited the legendary Eso Won Books of Los Angeles, California. The late Washington, D.C., poet Peter J. Harris, who had been living and writing for decades in Los Angeles, was my tour guide that day as I finally arrived at one of the crown jewel Black bookstores in the United States and took in what made the store so coveted, not just by the Black Los Angeles community, but also by Black people all over the world.<\/p>\n<p>Katie Mitchell\u2019s\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/724045\/prose-to-the-people-by-katie-mitchell-foreword-by-nikki-giovanni\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Link opens in new window (Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores)\">Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores<\/a><\/em>\u00a0recounts the story of Eso Won Books and many other Black bookstores. It is part coffee table photography book, part historical testimony via Mitchell and many other voices collected by her. It is the past, present, and future of Black bookstores that speaks to Black survival in a country now administered by a rogue government reeking of America\u2019s most racist days.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>By Katie Mitchell<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Clarkson Potter, 240 pages<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Publication date: April 8, 2025<\/p>\n<p>&#13;\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>At the very beginning, Mitchell, herself a bookseller, describes the \u201cBlack Bookshop\u201d overall as \u201cthis remarkable institution.\u201d Mitchell also writes that \u201cBlack protests feed Black bookshops like rivers do their banks,\u201d and this theme rides high throughout the pages, photos, writings, and news clippings. This theme is certainly true of one of the most famous, though short-lived, bookstores in Washington, D.C., known as Drum and Spear Bookstore.<\/p>\n<p>Drum and Spear Bookstore was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zinnedproject.org\/news\/tdih\/drum-and-spear-bookstore-founded\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Link opens in new window (founded)\">founded<\/a>\u00a0in the days after the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. It was June 1, 1968, and young activists from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) knew such places were necessary. Years ago, in an interview I conducted with members of the SNCC who founded the store, I was told that there was still tear gas in the air when the bookstore was opening amid the aftermath of the riots in the city that followed on the evening of King\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDrum and Spear Bookstore\u2019s unique ability to unite Black people across class and political leanings eventually was noticed by the FBI,\u201d Mitchell writes. The FBI labeled the store an \u201cextremist Black bookstore\u201d and began hard surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell also writes about D. Ruggles Books, a Black bookshop founded by abolitionist David Ruggles, who opened the store in 1834 in New York City, as the very first Black-owned bookstore in the United States. One year later, according to Mitchell, his store was \u201cburned to ashes in a suspected act of arson.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lewis Michaux\u2019s National Memorial African Bookstore of Harlem, which is perhaps the gold standard for Black bookselling, also gets the spotlight by Mitchell, and it is no surprise. A sojourn to Michaux\u2019s store for young readers and writers was as holy as the Hajj in Black literary circles. Michaux\u2019s store in Harlem was a favorite of Malcolm X, H. Rap Brown, and Stokely Carmichael among many other Black activists. Michaux, according to Mitchell, was an \u201cinstitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell\u2019s colorful book is so full of historical photos, short essays, poetry, and pictured artifacts of Black bookshop history, it could have easily been twice as long. The book is organized by region, which feels appropriate. The chapter called \u201cDMV\u201d covers the Washington, D.C., metro area and Baltimore, Maryland. There are chapters on \u201cThe Northeast,\u201d \u201cThe South,\u201d \u201cThe Midwest,\u201d and \u201cThe West.\u201d Each section dives deep into Black bookstore folklore with stories about shops like the Reverend Albert Cleage\u2019s Shrine of the Black Madonna in Atlanta, Georgia. This store\u2019s story is revealed through an interview with Cleage\u2019s daughter, the writer Pearl Cleage.<\/p>\n<p>It is no surprise that Mitchell includes a healthy focus on Black bookstores that specialize in Black women writers and those owned and operated by Black women. Across the geographical regions and chapters, Black women are answering the call of resistance and survival.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prose to the People<\/em>\u00a0also comes as attention toward the history and importance of Black bookstores intensifies. NBC News reporter Char Adams\u2019s\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/734577\/black-owned-by-char-adams\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Link opens in new window (Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore)\">Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore<\/a><\/em>\u00a0will arrive this November and expands upon Mitchell\u2019s statement here.\u00a0Black-Owned\u00a0is described by the publisher, Tiny Reparations Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, as a book that \u201ccelebrates\u201d Black bookstores and their role in community building\u2014and in liberation\u2014and \u201chow Black bookstores have always been centerpieces of resistance.\u201d Both of these offerings on literary culture come at a time when resistance to racism, sexism, and other societal ills remain front and center.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was back in 2017 that I finally visited the legendary Eso Won Books of Los Angeles, California. The late Washington, D.C., poet Peter J. Harris, who had been living and writing for decades in Los Angeles, was my tour guide that day as I finally arrived at one of the crown jewel Black bookstores [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":301148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12022],"tags":[10863,3726,2481,93189,2083,383],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-301147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activist","tag-black-history","tag-book-review","tag-future","tag-june-july-2025","tag-magazine","tag-present"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Past, Present, and Future - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Past, Present, and Future - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It was back in 2017 that I finally visited the legendary Eso Won Books of Los Angeles, California. The late Washington, D.C., poet Peter J. Harris, who had been living and writing for decades in Los Angeles, was my tour guide that day as I finally arrived at one of the crown jewel Black bookstores [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-19T00:57:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProsetothePeople2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"742\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"The Past, Present, and Future\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-19T00:57:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147\"},\"wordCount\":765,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProsetothePeople2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Black History\",\"book review\",\"Future\",\"June\/July 2025\",\"Magazine\",\"Present\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Activist\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147\",\"name\":\"The Past, Present, and Future - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProsetothePeople2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-19T00:57:51+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProsetothePeople2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProsetothePeople2.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":742},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Past, Present, and Future\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Past, Present, and Future - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Past, Present, and Future - Som2ny Network","og_description":"It was back in 2017 that I finally visited the legendary Eso Won Books of Los Angeles, California. The late Washington, D.C., poet Peter J. Harris, who had been living and writing for decades in Los Angeles, was my tour guide that day as I finally arrived at one of the crown jewel Black bookstores [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2025-06-19T00:57:51+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":742,"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProsetothePeople2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"The Past, Present, and Future","datePublished":"2025-06-19T00:57:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147"},"wordCount":765,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProsetothePeople2.jpg","keywords":["Black History","book review","Future","June\/July 2025","Magazine","Present"],"articleSection":["Activist"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147","name":"The Past, Present, and Future - Som2ny Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProsetothePeople2.jpg","datePublished":"2025-06-19T00:57:51+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProsetothePeople2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProsetothePeople2.jpg","width":1200,"height":742},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=301147#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Past, Present, and Future"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Som2ny Network","description":"Daily Deals","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Som2ny Network","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","width":300,"height":86,"caption":"Som2ny Network"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/301148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301147"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdealstore&post=301147"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fofferexpiration&post=301147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}