A campaign to support an independent bookstore in Oakland — Marcus Books, one of the oldest black-owned literary shops in the country — recently surpassed its goal of $200,000 to help the brick-and-mortar business pay its mortgage and transition online.

Folasade Adesanya, a regular customer and founder ofthe Black Syllabus, an Oakland-based book club that focuses on African American literature, launched aGoFundMe campaignon April 8. With shelter-in-place orders,独立书店被迫专注啊n online sales.

The campaign aims to help Marcus Book Stores, founded in 1960, create a web presence and selling platform, pay for its Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard storefront and expand infrastructure, inventory and staff. Itswebsite is currently under construction.

Co-owner Blanche Richardson, daughter of founders Rave and Julian Richardson, said the money will go beyond helping the store to survive.

“It’s freeing us from robbing Peter to pay Paul,” Richardson told The Chronicle.

Donations have skyrocketed asprotests and demonstrationsacross the country demand justice for George Floyd, a46-year-old black man killed onMay 25 by a Minneapolis police officer who kneeled on his neck. Marcus Books has also received a lot of media attention nationally during the pandemic, including from theWashington Post,USA Todayandthe Guardian.

“It’s overwhelming,” Richardson said of the public response. “Because we are 60 years old, this is not our first movement, but this one feels a lot different. I’d say 70% of orders coming in from all over the country are from white people looking for books on how to deal with racism.”

More than 4,000 separate donations were given as of Thursday, June 4, including from “Hamilton” star and Oakland nativeDaveed Diggsand activist-author Roxane Gay.

An online donor named Sasha Werblin wrote: “I remember going to Marcus Books with my dad and having conversations with Blanche. I know the deep importance of this cultural gem in my hometown of Oakland and in my neighborhood.”

The fundraising page points to an alarming statistic: Between 1999 and 2014, the number of black-owned bookstores in the U.S. haddeclined by 83%, or from 325 to 54, according to a study by theAfrican American Literature Book Club, an online resource for black literature.

Marcus Book Stores originally opened as part of the Success Printing Co. in the Fillmore district of San Francisco. The Oakland storefront opened in 1976, and theS.F. location closed in 2014.

Named after activist and author Marcus Garvey, the store has hosted hundreds of events with African American authors and icons, includingToni Morrison,Angela Davis,Chaka KhanandKareem Abdul-Jabbar.