Behind the Book with David Ruggles: The First Black Man in America to Open a Bookstore

On episode 53 of the podcast, we’re going Behind the Book and back in time, to meet David Ruggles, the first Black American to own and operate a bookstore for Black people.

David Ruggles was a revolutionary thinker, a bibliophile, a healer, and a radical abolitionist who believed that reading and the written word would set his people free. 

He opened the first Black-owned bookstore, D. Ruggles Books, in 1834 in New York City.

On this episode you’ll hear all about David Ruggles’ incredible life, his revolutionary bookstore, and the extraordinary career pivot he was forced to make after losing his eyesight as a young man. 

I promise, you will love this story. And you will feel even more motivated to get your stories out into the world after listening.

David Ruggles was living proof that a bookstore is a powerful weapon against oppression.

To learn more about David Ruggles, visit the David Ruggles Center for History and Education website. 

If you want to read a complete biography of Ruggles, try this well regarded biography  by Graham Russell Gao Hodges.

Grab a copy of Prose to the People, an excellent book about the history of Black bookstores in the United States.

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