For 33 years the Liberation Bookstore located in the heart of Harlem on 132nd street and Malcolm X Blvd has been feeding people in the community Information about African culture. It's barely escaped being shut down. "When I was a young teen I used to go there and buy books about people of color that could not be found anywhere else. I purchased the entire J.A. Rogers series on race at Una's Liberation Bookstore" said Elaine Johnson who is an advisor at Harlemlive. "This is a tragedy" said Harlem musician, Atiba J. D. Wilson. There were scores of people protesting in front of the bookstore on July 21st. Everyone at the rally wanted to save their famous bookstore. This a place where people have come to do everything from research, write papers, educate them selves about African American culture or just talk about the current events.

If this store does close then our history will die and our children will have one less place to go to research on their culture, said Grant Maire a resident of Harlem. Elombe Brathe, civil rights activist, said "I don't think our history will die, I just think this is one of the many things that we as a people have let go. I don't know how many institutions or people we have to lose before we wake up. What they are trying to do is remove this institute from our community and replace it with a McDonalds or another store that does not benefit the community" Elombe Brath who has been living in Harlem since 1962 recollects "This is the same thing that happened to the other bookstores like Common Sense and The Tree Of Life, They were fazed out."

He went on to say, "These type of bookstores turned Negroes into Africans. The closing of these stores now opens the doors to stores like Barnes & Noble, which I don't have a problem with it's just it will not be owned by Black people and will not give the same information like the Liberation Bookstore does." Most of the people that showed up at the rally brought many books from the Liberation Bookstore and if it stays open will continue. "The marshals should have been here at 8:30am to try to close the store but I guess they think that the people will get tired and leave and when Una (the owner of the store) closes they will talk to her then. Utrice Leid who works for WBAI (radio station) says that it's not going to close and that they are not trying to close the store they are trying to evict her, and if she is evicted then the store will close. She also has brought many books from the store.

Una was very happy that many people showed up to the rally to save the book store.After 25 years living in Harlem and 33 years the bookstore has been up this breaks her heart. Lately business has been slow but that has to do with the fact that because of her age she is not able to have the store open all kinds of hours. The store has lately been opened from 8am to 4pm five days a week. "I wanted to bring information about Africans to the community from all over the world, from areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America" said Una. She told me that the corner that she is located on,is prime real estate and is worth a lot of money. First her sister retired and now she is headed that way. She has a few family members that will keep the business going. The store is not yet closed and people hope to see that the store is not closed. Recently Una the owner of Liberation Bookstore was given a reprive and will be given more time.

In January, the co-op took Ms. Mulzac to court, and she agreed to pay $6,600 and to vacate the building by June 30. when she failed to leave, marshals were set to evict her. But because of the support from the community, now the co-op is hoping to work out a plan under which she can remain.