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Oldest Black-Owned Bookstore In Kansas City To Close

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The bookstore will transform into a public archive and community hub.


The oldest Black-owned bookstore in Kansas City, Missouri, will close its current chapter, but its mission to promote Black literacy will remain alive.

Willa’s Books and Vinyl opened its first brick-and-mortar store in 2007, but its owner, Willa Robinson, had been sharing stories with the Black community since the 1990s. Robinson sought out rare and antique books by Black authors, introducing them to local diverse youth and inspiring a love of reading.

She says this mission kept her storied bookstore around for decades. Since then, she has grown her collection to over 20,000 books.

“You never saw Black kids in books,” Robinson said to the Kansas City Star. “I’ve been collecting books for years, since 1978, and very few of the books had Black children in it.”

According to Robinson, encouraging Black boys to read required having stories they felt seen in. For the bibliophile, that meant ditching the classics and prioritizing works by Black authors.

“You have to have books that kids are interested in,” Robinson told the outlet. “Because as a young girl, I didn’t read the classics … and I think young Black boys don’t identify with them because it’s not about them.”

However, age caught up to the long-time entrepreneur. The 84-year-old decided to close up shop at the request of her loved ones. She hosted a retirement party July 12 to celebrate her timeless work in the community, marking a bittersweet end to the bookshop.

Despite her retirement, the former bookstore will remain dedicated to Black youth literacy. Robinson has partnered with the Kansas City Defender, a local Black digital news outlet, to continue its legacy. Robinson will grant ownership of her artwork, titles, and other archival items to the Defender.

The Defender will take over the bookstore, ensuring it becomes a communal hub and public archive of these works. Members of the community can visit and read the books for free, which include first-edition novels by Black authors such as Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright.

With the bookstore as its new headquarters, the Defender will also host its B-REAL Academy (Black Radical Education for Abolition and Liberation) to engage the community on Black history and radicalism. The vast efforts will also keep Black stories and teachings within Missouri, as many state schools faced book bans and cuts to DEI initiatives.

“When we talk about the erasure that’s currently happening with Black education, of Black books, there’s just no better place to intervene than the oldest and longest-standing Black bookstore in the state,” explained Defender Founder and Executive Editor Ryan Sorrell.

The Defender aims to continue Robinson’s legacy through this effort, with a fundraiser in the works to help with renovations.

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