Akbar Watson has been running his bookstore, Pyramid Books, in Boynton Beach, Florida, for 30 years and this year for the first time, amid George Floyd protests, he’s running out of books to sell online, particularly books on race. 

“It’s a shock, to say the least,” Watson told WPTV. The books he’s selling aren’t all on the New York Times Bestsellers list. Many are niche and obscure books.

“They weren’t being housed at major bookstores, they were coming from independent authors and independent publishers,” Watson said. “They didn’t have that wide spectrum.”

Watson started his business from the trunk of his car before opening up a  brick-and-mortar shop in Boynton Beach. Then, like many other bookstore owners, he struggled to maintain a physical location, so Watson turned to selling books online.

His said his business was, “For lack of a better term, an underground bookstore because people don’t necessarily connect Black man with reading and books and stuff,” Watson explained. “So we’ve come to see that it’s just a part of American reality, but it’s not our reality.”

In the wake of Floyd’s death, Watson said there has been a renewed interest in Black history, race relations and the like, and Watson can barely keep up with the orders.

“Everybody’s on deck and we’ve pretty much been working practically 24 hours a day for the last week,” he said.

This is not only good news for Watson, but for other struggling Black-owned bookstores that have faced stiff competition from e-book sellers and e-commerce sites like Amazon.com, along with gentrification, unaffordable rent and high property taxes. 

Add to this the covid-19 shutdowns across the country and many Black-owned businesses have taken a major financial hit.

“The pandemic exacerbated the plight of the few remaining Black bookstores across the country,” said Blanche Richardson, whose parents founded the country’s oldest Black-owned bookstore — Marcus Books — 60 years ago, according to USA Today.

For years, Black-owned businesses subject to surveillance by the FBI. Even though the majority of Black-owned bookstores were not hubs for Black activism — just businesses that happened to be owned by Black Americans — the FBI put these establishments under surveillance in 1968.

In a memo, FBI head J. Edgar Hoover ordered each bureau office to “locate and identify Black extremist and/or African-type bookstores in its territory and open separate discreet investigations on each to determine if it is extremist in nature,” according to University of Baltimore professor Joshua Clark Davis, who obtained a previously classified memo about this surveillance program while researching his 2017 book, “From Head Shops to Whole Foods: The Rise and Fall of Activist Entrepreneurs.”

The point of the investigation, according to Hoover’s memo, was to “determine the identities of the owners; whether it is a front for any group or foreign interest; whether individuals affiliated with the store engage in extremist activities; the number, type, and source of books and material on sale; the store’s financial condition; its clientele; and whether it is used as a headquarters or meeting place.”

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 72: Jamarlin Martin Part 2. J Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI, may not be around but his energy is present in new Black politics.FBI agents and informants were used to weaken Marcus Garvey, the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers — in ma ny cases for money and career advancement. How could this energy metastasize into the “New Blacks” politics in 2020? Jamarlin goes solo to discuss who is doing the trading and what is being traded to weaken the aggregate Black political position.

Once again, like in the 1960s, people are turning to Black bookstores to learn more about race relations in this country.  Watson said his bookstore is receiving hundreds of online orders for books such as “The New Jim Crow” and “Ready for the Revolution.”

“We have always been viewed as a problem in American society and that reality that we didn’t create is starting to unfold in the face of America as we see it today,” Watson said. “I know that one book is not going to change the world, but I think it’s a step in the right direction.”

Here is a list of Black-owned bookstores where you can shop online.