Black Love & Liberation: Another Implausible COINTELPRO Target
Black liberation is unstoppable; the war is not over.
During Juneteenth weekend in 2023, I had the pleasure of making images during the grand opening of North Carolina’s first Black-owned children’s bookstore, Liberation Station Bookstore.
Over the course of three days, Liberation Station co-owner Victoria Scott-Miller and her family hosted several events, including a ribbon-cutting ceremony, a showcase of their collection of rare, signed first edition print books by Black authors, and a Black cowgirl and cowboy-led liberation walk from North Carolina’s State Capitol building to the bookstore itself.
With book bans in U.S. public schools increasing rapidly, Liberation Station is a symbol of hope, especially for our people; Black people. In hopes of gaining support from the City of Raleigh, Victoria applied for an event permit, which she was denied. Regardless of the denial, the grand opening was a huge success, with over 3,000 people attending.
One of the major events documented was the white glove access event. This event gave children hands-on access to several rare books by Black authors. Two images in this series document the inter-generational moment of two children and their mother engaging with a signed, first-edition copy of Gordon Parks's Voices in the Mirror autobiography. When Victoria originally purchased the book, to her surprise, she found an authentic letter from Gordon Parks to the original book’s owner.
The crux of this grand opening was the liberation walk. As mentioned before, Victoria was denied a permit for the weekend, but this walk was unstoppable. This celebration of Black Liberation was much needed for Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1965, the Ku Klux Klan would march through this same area, but on Juneteenth 2023, Fayetteville Street was filled with proud Black people waving Black Liberation flags in celebration of ourselves and our ancestors.
In mid-April 2024, I was given the incredible honor of making images of the owners of Liberation Station, Victoria Scott-Miller & Duane Miller, during their last days in the bookstore’s downtown Raleigh location. After receiving continued harassment and death threats they chose to close this brick and mortar, but I am here to show and tell you that Black liberation cannot and will not be stopped.
As I’ve told Victoria & many others, I feel that anyone with a Black revolutionary mindset has to make a choice at some point: Give yourself fully to the movement or protect yourself and your family.
In my opinion, either choice is correct. The most important question is: Have you done the work?
And we all know Liberation Station has done more than enough and will continue to do more.
I admire and appreciate my Liberation Station family’s choice.
Did you know Black-owned bookstores were a target during the FBI’s COINTELPRO program from 1956 - 1971, right alongside civil rights activists?
The war is not over.
Digital Photographs, Scan of 35mm Film Negative, & Scan of Polaroid 600 Film
All images made in 2023 & 2024
