North Carolina’s first Black-owned children’s bookstore, called the Liberation Station Bookstore, is closing down its downtown Raleigh location after receiving death threats. According to reports by owner Victoria Scott-Miller, the store will close on April 13.
Located on the second floor of a brick-and-mortar building on Fayetteville Street, it’s only had a steady location for less than a year.
The bookstore opened last year on Juneteenth and had very few issues with finances or business. Scott-Miller admitted the only reason they would be moving to close the store was because of the threats.
After being awarded several grants, she told outlets, “Financially, it was wonderful. But I stand with the fact that we are in the business of children. And whether it is their emotional safety, our emotional safety, their physical safety, or our physical safety, we have a responsibility to make a conscious decision about how we can move forward.”
The entrepreneur explained that the threats the Liberation Station bookstore received ranged from hate speech to death threats left on the office phone and the store’s Instagram page.
Scott-Miller expressed that it was disheartening to see the negativity that was directed at them.
“You can turn on the TV and see controversy, pain, and violence. And this is a place of refuge. Like there’s so much goodness around the work that we do that I just did not want it to be another negative experience.”
The Liberation Station Bookstore opened to be a safe space for Black people– both children and adults. It features books written by Black authors and Black stories curated specially by the owners before being put onto the shelves.
On Tuesday, April 2, Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin contacted authorities on behalf of the bookstore after being made aware of the threats.
The Raleigh Police Department responded in a statement, “The Raleigh Police Department encourages our community to contact us for any harassment or threats being made to them, their business, or their customers. We do not tolerate threats or harassment and welcome the community’s help in identifying and addressing them.”
The Liberation Station is not shutting down entirely but is instead moving to a new location once they find a safer place.
Scott-Miller blamed much of her decision on the police department’s slow reaction to threats against the bookstore.
She said, “I don’t want to speak ill of the police. But there is so much we often have to do to prove our discomfort and lack of safety, and we didn’t want to go through that part. There’s a disconnect in the human experience, in particular the experiences of Black business owners in the city, and that part needs to be addressed. But that’s not something I am going to assign myself to do.”
