In Her Last Professional Chapter, Retiring Bookstore Owner Talks Literacy

The owner of what’s believed to be the only African-American-owned bookstore in Wisconsin is retiring, and the store is closing this weekend.

Carla Allison has operated The Reader’s Choice on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Milwaukee for the last 28 years. The store is in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, and Allison says it was her mission to provide books by minority authors.

“As Toni Morrison would say, they write because they have something to say. They write because they can say that something in a way that connects to a particular audience,” Allison said Friday.

She worries about community access to those authors diminishing with her retirement, but said she can’t do anything about that.

Allison has also worked on literacy programs in Milwaukee, and urges the city to step up its efforts.

“It involves parents. It involves politicians. The Common Council. It involves all of those folks who would like to call themselves, who image themselves, as leaders,” she said. If leaders are readers, why don’t we know that?”

The Reader’s Choice will have a closing celebration and liquidation sale on Saturday.