New Black-owned bookshop isn’t worried about Amazon
GULFPORT, Miss. — Inside a little office in downtown Gulfport, Tonisha Kimble is writing a new chapter in Mississippi’s history of Black-owned bookstores.
Kimble opened the Wonders of the World Book and Toy Store space recently after years in business as an online vendor. The shop displays comics, picture books like “Freedom We Sing” and notebooks Kimble designed herself, including one with the Audre Lorde quote “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
Her shop joins a handful of Black-owned book stores in Mississippi.
These shops are bucking a national trend: From 2000 to 2012, the number of Black-owned book stores in the United States fell from 325 to 54.
And they’re doing it in Mississippi, the home state of some of America’s most influential authors, from Richard Wright and Anne Moody in the 20th century to Jesmyn Ward and Kiese Laymon today.
That’s the legacy that Kimble hopes to carry forward.
“It’s a weird combination — we have such a rich arts and literary history that people don’t think about,” she said. “The first thing you think is something racist. It definitely takes work to have people know that we’re here.”
Before the pandemic, Kimble relied on events to sell products and build relationships with potential customers. With events canceled or scaled back, it was hard to make enough money selling only online.
So she found the space in downtown Gulfport and decided to make the leap to open a brick-and-mortar store for the first time. She’s hoping the store will allow for serendipitous interactions with customers, conversations about books and toys for kids, book signings and author talks and even birthday parties.
As a kid, Kimble was a reader, and “fortunate enough” to always have books around. She loved mysteries, flipping through encyclopedias, and books by Eric Jerome Dickey.
When her son was born, she wanted to help him love books too. But she realized it was difficult to find books that represented her family.
“I was like, if I’m facing that problem, I’m sure my friends and other people that I know who love books also and want to pass it on to their children are as well,” she said. “Why not start a business?”
She started WoW while living in Florida a few years ago, as an online shop selling books, toys and puzzles. The logo, which she designed herself, depicts her and her son.
Owning a bookstore runs in Maati Jone
Primm’s family. Her grandmother Ora Page Marshall founded Marshall’s Music and Bookstore in Jackson 83 years ago.
“It kind of makes us the unicorn of book stores, that we could go through three generations and five owners and still come out successful,” Primm said.
Primm says Marshall’s is the country’s oldest Black-owned bookstore. It’s more than two decades older than Marcus Books, the Oakland, California, store often described as the oldest Black-owned bookstore in the U.S.
Tommye Morris said it was a revelation from that led her and her husband James Morris to open their store, Milestone Christian Bookstore, in Pearl in 1995. It was an extension of ministry: James Morris is the pastor of ChristAnointed Church in Jackson.
“We could provide information, a place for resources, for people who were curious about the word, wanting to know more,” Tommye Morris said. “The only way you can do that is study. There’s gotta be somewhere for people to get study materials. We wanted to provide that place.”
WoW is a secular bookstore with a similar dedication to the community. Kimble envisions it as a place where kids can find something to do.
Even before opening her physical space, Kimble participated in events such as a community baby shower focused on addressing health disparities that affect Black mothers. Kimble doesn’t worry much about Amazon, she said, because she has something they can’t offer. She just wants to make sure people know where to find her.
“I love my home state, I’ve been a lot of places, and I really just want people to know that this type of culture is here,” Kimble said.