Black-owned children’s bookstore in North Carolina is closing over alleged threats

The owner of a Black-owned children’s bookstore in Raleigh, North Carolina, said she was closing her doors less than a year after opening due to violent threats.

The store, called Liberation Station Bookstore, was the first of its kind in the community, owner Victoria Scott-Miller wrote in an Instagram post announcing the closure of her first and only retail store.

She described how difficult it was to reconcile the “tremendous joy” she felt in serving the community with the “threats of violence,” including death threats and hate mail that she said endangered the store and endangered the safety of his family.

In one particularly surprising incident, she wrote on Instagram, a caller detailed what her son was wearing while he was at the store alone, she said.

“Over the past 8 months, we have struggled with the immense joy of serving our community and the many blessings we have received that have allowed us to continue to advance this work and our experiences with the unsettling reality of facing threats of violence and emotional harm from those who remain anonymous and faceless,” Scott-Miller wrote on Instagram.

The store has faced threats since its inception, but more recent provocations are even more concerning, she said.

“While this is not a new challenge, it becomes real when these threats are directed against our physical location and accessibility,” Scott-Miller wrote.

Liberation Station Bookstore, which focused on selling children’s books by Black and underrepresented authors, will remain open at its location on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh until April 13, according to Scott-Miller .

This is not the end of the matter, however. He will donate his unsold inventory to literacy nonprofits while he plans his next chapter.

“Collectively, we will go back to the drawing board to reevaluate and redefine what we will need in our next location,” Scott-Miller wrote.

Nearly 4,000 people attended the bookstore’s grand opening in 2023, which Scott-Miller called “a true testament to our impact.”

She said the store’s goal is to both serve the community and prepare her own children “for the world they will one day inherit.”