Inside one of N.J.'s last Black-owned bookstores, where ‘your Black is beautiful’ | Entertainment - NJ.com

This story is part of a new NJ.com series: “Black in N.J.,” which celebrates Black culture in the Garden State and seeks to further discussion about issues facing New Jersey’s Black community.

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When you walk into Source of Knowledge in Newark, you’re in a space that is unapologetically Black. 

Source of Knowledge bookstore in downtown Newark is one of few Black-owned independent bookstores in the state, and even in the country.
Photo: Tennyson Donnie Coleman | For NJ Advance Media

Incense burns. Soulful music plays in the background. Books by Black writers line the shelves and art pieces from Senegal adorn the walls.

Yet the small book shop, located downtown on the corner of Broad and Lafayette streets, is easy to miss. Other than a tiny beige banner displaying the store’s name, the building’s worn facade is nearly invisible, outshined by the gleaming buildings nearby: chic new apartments, a Courtyard Marriott hotel, the cavernous Prudential Center arena.

Moreover, its industry has all but disappeared; Source of Knowledge is one of only two Black-owned bookstores left in New Jersey...

This black-owned bookstore has served its N.J. community for almost 30 years

Source Of Knowledge sells all sorts of titles: novels and Black history texts, vegan cookbooks and essential oil explainers, you name it. Here customers find stories about hallowed Black figures like Jackie Robinson, Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King, or less-discussed heroes like writer Ida B. Wells and human rights activist Sojourner Truth.

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Source: NJ.com and NJ.com Channel (YouTube)