Hodari Ali was the founder and owner of Pyramid Books in Washington, D.C. As I mentioned earlier, I grew up three blocks from that black owned bookstore, even went past the building every day while attending high school, yet had no idea it existed until I was an adult. Another store, Jewels of Aton was two doors away, though it specialized in jewelry it sold books also.

 

This Black Enterprise article from 1981 is before Pyramid opened and tells how a business grew to fill a need through distribution.

 

I knew I had to post it here when I read the quote "they don't want blacks to think."

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=L8nDKoa0eBQC&lpg=PA30&dq=hodari ali&pg=PA30#v=onepage&q=hodari ali&f=true