A children’s bookstore in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, considered to be the first Black-owned in the state, is closing less than a year after it opened because of numerous alleged death threats, the owner said on social media.
The owner of Liberation Station Bookstore on Fayetteville Street, identified by multiple media outlets as Victoria Scott-Miller, said the store has been receiving threats, including hate mail, since September 2023.
“Some we brushed off, while others included disturbing phone calls detailing what our son Langston wore when he was at the shop alone,” the bookstore’s Facebook said.
They made attempts to mitigate the situation including frequently changing store hours and posting content after hours, the posts said.
“Our choice to close our physical location is not a retreat, but rather a reimagining of our aspirations, dreams, vision, and above all, our SAFTEY—both physical and emotional,” the store wrote on Facebook.
Liberation Station’s brick-and-mortar location opened in June 2023 and had thousands of attendees during its grand opening weekend. It has been featured nationally on Good Morning America and in publications like The Oprah Magazine, Essence and American Airlines’s magazine, American Way.
In a 2020 interview, Scott-Miller told The Washington Post she and her family decided to create the bookstore, which began as a pop-up, to curate a collection of books where Black children were the heroes of the stories and the narratives didn’t center around types of trauma or oversimplified versions of Black history.
“We will forever cherish the profound experiences, intergenerational encounters, stories exchanged, and history that we have created together within these walls,” the bookstore wrote on Facebook. “Your support has been the bedrock of our existence and will continue as we transition to the exploration of a new activation location in Southeast Raleigh.”
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