Black Bookstores in the United States

The infographic brings focus to the longstanding tradition of Black Bookstores as cornerstones of Black communities across the united states by mapping their locations. In this visualization we highlight the work of two visionary women one historic and one living. The data which maps current and some historic bookstores across the U.S. comes from Katie Mitchell’s Prose to the People: A Celebration of Black Bookstores. Prose to the People is a collects historical and contemporary stories on the phenomenon of Black Bookstores and there locations. It offers beautiful moments of poetry throughout and features a forward by Nikki Giovanni. 

The look of our bookstore map stands out from all the data portraits we have made because it approximates the design aesthetic of historic cartographer Louise E. Jefferson. Jefferson was one of the first Black women cartographers working in the early half of the 20th century and a fixture of the Harlem Renaissance community of artists. 

As we encountered the visionary and sensitive works of these two women we knew immediately that pairing them within a data portrait was the only logical way to see Black bookstores in the U.S. Jefferson’s historic work has added to the development and awareness of Black history through her groundbreaking work in cartography, while Mitchell’s collection of Black bookstores underscores Jefferson’s work by offering an important chapter to Black literary histories.