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Char Adams

Biography

Char Adams

Char Adams is a former reporter for NBC News and for People. Her writing on race and identity has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Oprah Daily, Vice, Teen Vogue and Bustle. She is a proud Philadelphia native and now lives in the Dallas–Fort Worth area.

Char Adams

Books by Char Adams

Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore
by Char Adams - History, Nonfiction

In BLACK-OWNED, longtime NBC News reporter Char Adams celebrates the living history of Black bookstores. Packed with stories of activism, espionage, violence, community and perseverance, the book starts with the first Black-owned bookstore, which an abolitionist opened in New York in 1834. After its violent demise, Black booklovers carried on its cause. In the 20th century, civil rights and Black Power activists started a Black bookstore boom nationwide. Malcolm X gave speeches in front of the National Memorial African Book Store in Harlem --- a place dubbed “Speakers’ Corner” --- and later, Black bookstores became targets of FBI agents, the police and racist vigilantes. Still, stores continued to fuel Black political movements. Amid these struggles, bookshops were also places of celebration.