Una Mulzac

Una Mulzac (April 19, 1923 – January 21, 2012) was an African American bookseller and founder of the Liberation Bookstore, a prominent African-American bookstore specializing in political and Black Power materials and was located in Harlem.[1][2]

Personal life

Una Mulzac was born in Baltimore, but raised in Brooklyn, New York.[3] Her father, Hugh Mulzac, was a socialist and the first black commander of a ship in the United States Merchant Marine.[1] She grew up in Bedford–Stuyvesant, where she graduated from Girls' High School. Mulzac briefly worked as a secretary for Random House.[2][3] In 1963, Mulzac moved to British Guiana, where she joined the People's Progressive Party and ran their bookstore in the capital of Georgetown.[2][3] She was injured in a bomb attack at the Progressive Book Store.[2] Mulzac was on the executive board of the Harlem chapter of the NAACP.[4] Her grand nephew is Sharrif Simmons, a poet and songwriter.[5]

Liberation Bookstore

A year after to returning to Harlem from British Guiana, Mulzac opened the Liberation Bookstore in 1967.[1] The Liberation Bookstore has been compared to Lewis Michaux's African National Memorial Bookstore.[1]

Further reading

  • Joshua Clark Davis. From Head Shops to Whole Foods: The Rise and Fall of Activist Entrepreneurs. Columbia University Press, 2017, ISBN 9780231171588
  • Joshua Clark Davis, "Una Mulzac, Black Woman Booksellers, and Pan-Africanism," Black Perspectives, September 19, 2016.
  • Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America, Little Brown, 2011, ISBN 978-0-316-01723-7.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Douglas Martin, "Una Mulzac, Bookseller With Passion for Black Politics, Dies at 88", New York Times, February 4, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d Davis, Joshua (September 19, 2016). "Una Mulzac, Black Woman Booksellers, and Pan-Africanism". Black Perspectives.
  3. ^ a b c Boyd, Herb (August 5, 2015). "Activist entrepreneur Una G. Mulzac". New York Amsterdam News. ProQuest 1706375015.
  4. ^ The Crisis. Mar 1958. Retrieved February 5, 2012.
  5. ^ "interview". WBHM.