Source: The Durham / The Durham
Less than a year after opening its brick-and-mortar location, Liberation Station, North Carolina’s first Black-owned children’s bookstore, is leaving Downtown Raleigh.
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Liberation Station opened its location at 208 Fayetteville St on Juneteenth 2023 to much excitement. However, just a few months after opening, owner Victoria Scott-Miller said the store received multiple threats.
“Since September, we’ve faced numerous threats following the opening of our store,” she wrote on Instagram. “Some we brushed off, while others included a disturbing phone call detailing what our son Langston wore when he was at the shop alone. In response, we’ve been strategizing within our means to avoid being targeted. This has involved frequently changing our operating hours, generating content after hours, and taking turns between my husband and me to oversee the store. Despite the challenges, our bookstore has brought immense joy, and we’ve been determined not to become another headline of controversy. We’ve worked tirelessly to create a safe space not just for our community but for our own family as well.”
Scott-Miller and her family tried to curtail the threats by frequently changing their business hours and taking turns between Scott-Miller and her husband to oversee the store. Unfortunately, it was to no avail.
Scott-Miller went on to say that she reached out to the landlord of the building for assistance. Instead, the landlord informed them that they’re shopping around the space to potential new tenants.
“This response unfortunately echoes the encounters we’ve faced since we embarked on this journey, one that has exacerbated since being downtown,” Scott-Miller wrote. “The significance of our location cannot be understated, as it serves as a vital access point that we must carefully consider.”
Liberation Station will be leaving the location on April 30, but Scott-Miller vows that this will not be the end of her mission to provide children’s books by Black & POC authors and illustrators.
“It certainly won’t mark the end of Liberation Station Bookstore. There is so much more work to be done,” she concludes.
The bookstore will remain operational until April 13. After that, all remaining inventory will be donated to literacy nonprofits in the Triangle.
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Black-Owned Children’s Bookstore Forced To Move After Death Threats was originally published on foxync.com
