James Baldwin’s face is painted on a decorative bookcase inside the Baldwin Company Bookstore in New Orleans.
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Baldwin & Co. opened just three years ago, but on a recent summer afternoon, the bookstore was packed. Over the past year, the Black-owned store celebrated its namesake’s 100th birthday with a splashy countdown event. The bookstore’s website says James Baldwin was “a literary giant whose writings about race, identity and social justice still resonate today.”
Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924 in New York City. Baldwin & Co. was born in a gleaming white building of almost the same vintage in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans. The bookstore is the brainchild of DJ Johnson, who grew up in the city in a family of avid readers.
“We never had much else, but we always had books in the house,” he recalls. “My father was a big supporter of us reading black literature.”
Johnson remembers his childhood spent in the tense atmosphere of segregated neighborhoods. Suspicion between black and white residents was high. His family lived on a street filled with only black families. “There’s a real wooden fence,” he said. “On the other side of that rickety wooden fence was what we called ‘White Man’s Alley.'”
Johnson said if a friend or family member recklessly ventures there, police will be called. False accusations, violence and injustice followed. “When I witnessed this, I was reading James Baldwin’s next fire,” he said. “It spoke to me.
DJ Johnson, owner of Baldwin & Co., was in an apartment above the bookstore reserved for visiting writers.
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As an undergraduate at Clark Atlanta University, a historically black institution, young Johnson studied technology, not literature. But his favorite memories include late-night rap sessions with Baldwin scholar Daniel Black. “It’s electric,” he said. “The energy is so vibrant.”
Johnson became a tech executive and real estate developer in Washington, D.C., but he always visited independent bookstores when traveling. In Paris, he found the legendary Shakespeare Company, where literary buffs sometimes queued to get in.
“If I were to open a store… I would name it Baldwin’s and I would want people to line up like this,” he recalled. “I want them to line up like they’re standing here, [but at a bookstore] This is a tribute to a black literary great.
Shortly thereafter, Johnson moved back to New Orleans to care for his aging parents.
“I’m bored,” he admits. “When I walk around the community, talking to people, talking to young kids, I always have a book in my hand. People will ask me, why do you always have a book in your hand? Book? No Do you have a book in hand?
This question drove the creation of the bookstore. Although Johnson says he was not motivated by financial success, he is now convinced that his independent bookstore sells more Baldwin books than anywhere else. “They were our first sellers,” he said. “Every week, we get repeat orders. Every week, we order a lot of James Baldwin books.”
Baldwin fans come from all over the world, including a significant number from China, but Johnson said his first goal is to make the company a community center.
“We hold book festivals and give away thousands of free books to children,” he explains. “We just had a Banned Books Festival. The books they banned, we gave away for free. At our book festival, we provided free food, free drinks and free entertainment.”
“We allow local writers to come in and set up tables,” he continued. “They can sell books. There’s no commission. Whatever book the author sells, they get to keep it. We allow vendors to come and sell their personal crafts. We don’t charge any fees. We also offer free summer literacy tutoring services. We also provide community gathering, people can come to Baldwin to discuss issues such as health care, childhood obesity, young parenting and the needs of new mothers.
He added that every child who participates in the store’s monthly story time will receive a free book. “Because we’re committed to building home libraries.”
In addition to all of his famous published novels, essays, short stories, plays, and poems, Baldwin’s children’s books, little man, little manavailable in bookstores.
“James Baldwin changed my life,” Johnson said. “His literature, his perspective, his insights. They changed my life. I want to give this opportunity to other people.
“The first week, we had to wait in line three blocks long to get in every day, all day long,” he added. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is like Shakespeare’s company. That’s it.'”
It is a place of pilgrimage for readers from around the world who find in James Baldwin truth, beauty, and guidance on how to endure the world.
