About Black English Bookstore and HBCU Legacy Project

CBS Evening News with Christian Benavides

For the Culture with Deanna King, WFLA Tampa

BLACK ENGLISH BOOKSTORE

Black English Bookstore is a women-owned and independently operated bookshop 

that caters to readers of all ages while elevating black-authored books. Our mission is to promote 

the reading culture. In addition to fostering curiosity, we gift young readers with books through sponsorship, highlight HBCU alumni authors, and proudly liberate banned titles by groups and individuals who feel uncomfortable with the power of words, knowledge, and truth for themselves and others.

• Founder Gwendolyn Henderson is committed to restoring a black-owned bookstore to the inner city of Tampa. By carefully curating reading options representing extraordinary voices, she has elevated a distinct culture and community, while adding Tampa to the 6% of independent bookstores owned by blacks in America.
• A bookstore that primarily sells books written by writers who pen a language, from plain to proper, that can be identified and classified as Black English by its patrons, friends, neighbors, and the curious.
• Black English Bookstore will serve as a gathering place for people from all walks of life who enjoy congregating in cozy spaces while actively contributing to the literary ethos. 
• Our online bookstore is an affiliate of Bookshop and earns commissions on all online orders and audio books from Libro.fm. 

• Online Only Orders:  Bookshop  
• Gift Cards:  In-Store / Phone Orders Only
• Audiobook Link:  Libro.fm
• Donation Link:  FreeToRead (We've given away 100s of books!)
• ABC Action News:  Sean Daly
• BLAVITY:  Small Business News
• Fox 13 Tampa Bay:  What's Great with Tampa Bay
• Tampa Bay Business & Wealth:  Women of Business
• Voyage Tampa:  Daily Inspiration Meet Gwendolyn
• BINC Foundation:  Black English Selected for Incubator Program