Rise Up Supports Marcus Books, America’s Oldest Black-Owned Bookstore

Rise Up co-founders Sarah Foster, Jenny Roy, and Meg Honey stand in front of Marcus Books in Oakland with owner Blanche Richardson.

This week, the Rise Up Against Racism team spent a wonderful morning at Marcus Books in Oakland. We are thrilled to have purchased the selections for our Little Free Antiracist Libraries from Marcus Books, and we learned so much about the history and legacy of this special establishment. 

Marcus Books in Oakland, the oldest Black-owned bookstore in the United States.

Blanche Richardson, the current owner, is the daughter of Julian and Raye Richardson who founded the original San Francisco store in 1960. Julian was born in 1916 and graduated from Tuskegee University. He was a classmate of the famed novelist Ralph Ellison and was a student while George Washington Carver and Booker T. Washington were on faculty. While at Tuskegee, Julian met a fellow student, Raye Gilbert. The two fell in love, got married, and moved to California. Raye earned a doctorate in Literature at UC Berkeley and went on to chair the Black Studies Department at San Francisco State University. Julian owned a printing company in San Francisco and opened the first Marcus Books in the back of the business. Over the years, literary greats and civil rights activists such as Alice Walker, Malcolm X, Terry MacMillan, Cornel West, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Amiri Baraka, among others, frequented Marcus Books, and, in 1976, the Oakland location opened.

Rise Up encourages you to support Black-owned businesses like Marcus Books.

Blanche has said this about her parents’ vital work: “They shared a love of reading Black books and found them difficult to find and purchase. They realized that for a Black community to be progressive, it must have its own bookstore as a source of information about itself.” Marcus Books, named after the Black Nationalist and famed orator, Marcus Garvey, has remained an important community space. The Oakland location is stocked with a tremendous collection of books spanning different historical eras and genres. Blanche strikes a wonderful balance of contemporary best sellers, a wide selection of children’s and young adult selections, along with classics of Black history and literature. In addition, Marcus Books displays rare, first edition and signed manuscripts, beautiful stained glass artwork, and images of Julian and Raye. 

A peek inside one of the boxes of books the Rise Up team purchased with our community’s support to fill our Little Free Antiracist Libraries.

Blanche has generously donated additional children’s books for our Little Free Antiracist Libraries and has been such a wonderful partner in our work. We cannot wait to install our Libraries and share the curated collection of books with our community!

We are almost to the finish line of our Antiracist Book Initiative and would greatly appreciate your support. Please remember that your donation is tax deductible (Tax ID: 85-2472161) and that all donors who give $25 or more will receive a Rise Up Against Racism yard sign.