June 10, 2014
“What he made a reality through that bookstore, was a forum where people could come together and be challenged to raise the right questions about political, religious and social
issues,” said San Francisco Supervisor Amos Brown, of Marcus Bookstore co-owner Raye Richardson. Brown added that Mr. Richardson “made a sterling contribution of great substance in that he developed many young scholars.”
Marcus Bookstore has been the best bookstore ever and it has a lot of history with the Ethnic Studies Department at SFSU. In the sixties there was a big protest to form a department to teach Black Studies the way African Americans on campus felt like they were supposed to teach. They had a list of demands and many things came out of the protest: the Black Student Union, the Cesar Chavez Student Center, the La Raza major, and the Asian History major. I think the strike at SFSU was connected with the Black Panthers and the fraternities and sororities. Most of my teachers sprouted from this revolution to make the first Ethnic Studies program in the United States. I sincerely believe the struggle for justice in academia is still going on, especially after the closing of Marcus Bookstore.
Every teacher in the Ethnic Studies program makes the students buy their books from Marcus Bookstore. We kept their bookstore running because it is one of the first black bookstores in the nation. While the bookstore is being threatened with closure, I am hurting because I am an Africana Studies major, and I feel I got robbed!
Dr. Ramona Pascoe’s September letter of protest to the Governor's office, who had called upon State Troopers to squash the protesters in 1968, says it best: “Today, all around our nation, the compelling argument for cultural sensitivity and cultural competence has been recognized as critical to our diplomatic success in meeting our neighbors in the global community with whom we share a global economy. Today, we are united. Not unlike the American Revolution, the Battle at Gettysburg, or the historic Civil Rights Movement, change comes through challenge. Will you or Maria please join us? Will you send us a letter of commendation for our achievement? Can we bury the proverbial ax?"
There will be a news conference to support Marcus Bookstore. It is an opportunity to note the courageous actions of student strikers and their supporters; heal breaches that remain; highlight the victories achieved by the strike; make sure that the strike is more than just a footnote in history books; and to call the United States and the world to be vigilant of civil rights and social justice.
How can we keep social justice if they denigrate everything people of color have fought for at SFSU? Evidently the cycle of violence has not stopped, as can be witnessed in the writings of a lot of the Black Studies teachers, who have fought for their classes, and written a tremendous amount of books about their experience at SFSU when they were students or young teachers. I do not know what is going to happen, but now I don’t think it is a white or black problem, it’s the poor against the rich. I think Marcus Bookstore is a closed statement, because of its history.
The generations after us will not understand the struggle of the striking students involved in the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther party. Every elder at SFSU in the Black Studies Department consistently reiterates that we must keep the movement alive and follow those before them, to turn to greater accomplishments. After finding out how many teachers have left SFSU and the Black Studies department, other younger generations will not get the opportunity I had to spend time with our elders, who’ve made it happen for all the students at SFSU, especially students of color.
I think it is absurd to close the bookstore. It’s like closing down one of the only things Black people owned.