A GoFundMe campaign created to save LEMS Life Enrichment Bookstore in Seattle, Wash., the last black-owned bookstore focused on the African diaspora in the Pacific Northwest, has raised more than $46,000 from almost 1,000 people since its launch in late February.
The campaign was created by Estelita's Library, a social justice community bookstore and library located in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood. The campaign's creators hope to raise a total of $75,000, which would allow them to pay off the bookstore's back rent, cover one additional year of rent for the bookstore and "re-ignite the bookstore services" by bringing Estelita's Library into the space and creating a small co-working space for communities of color.
LEMS was founded more than 20 years ago by Vickie Williams, who ran the store until her death in 2017. When LEMS first opened it was a Christian bookstore, and later became the Learning Educational Materials and Software (LEMS) bookstore, wrote the Seattle Times in an obituary of Williams. Over time, Williams added more children's books and literature by writers such as James Baldwin and Toni Morrison. LEMS has been in its current storefront since about 2008; prior to that it moved numerous times.
Estelita's Library, meanwhile, was founded in May 2018 by Edwin Lindo. The bookstore/library and community space has more than 300 active members, according to the Seattle Globalist.