Information on Closed Bookstores

Honoring the legacy of bookstores that focused on Black books.

While these stores are no longer open, they played a vital role in our literary history. Please support the stores that remain open.

Liberation Bookstore CLOSED

131st Street and Malcolm X Boulevard
New York, NY 10027

Proprietor(s): Una Mulzac

Year Opened: 1963

Notes

“If you don’t know, learn.” … “If you know, teach.”



Una Mulzac (April 19, 1923 – January 21, 2012), was the owner of Harlem’s Liberation Bookstore for almost 40 years. She was active politicly and and Iconic bookseller. Her father, Hugh Mulzac, was the first African American ship commander and was named named a chief officer on the SS Yarmouth, one of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association Black Star Line’s vessels.