Bingham's Books & Culture

New Haven, CT

SUMMARY An independently black owned woman owned bookstore centering authors of color and black culture dedicated to the family legacy of Russell Bingham. FULL Bingham’s Books & Culture is a literary agency and bookstore focused on centering community care and inclusion. It seeks to be located in the New Haven community within the Westville and Whalley Avenue corridor. It is meant to promote and keep America’s social justice histories of the 1960’s era current in the collective consciousness of the New Haven community and beyond. For this reason the parent company is named “People Get Ready” after the famous civil rights song by Curtis Mayfield, (lyrics here). Its corresponding bookstore and literary agency is named in honor of the founder’s great grandfather Russel Bingham, Bingham was a WWI Vet, Entrepreneur, and Civil Rights leader who, after experiencing racism from his own countrymen during the war of WWI, returned home and took action to organize his community for better political representation. He organized the community of Newark New Jersey, specifically, its black community, which resulted in successfully electing the city’s first black Mayor, Ken Gibson. He was a soldier stationed in the 369th Infantry, more commonly known in history as the Harlem Hellfighters. Bingham’s is also meant as a Safe Space for booklovers to gather and Bookstore where authors, artists and other organizations can come together to promote and sell their work and also increase access to literacy rich opportunities for public school children in the New Haven community. It is intended to foster a life-long love of learning by carrying texts that reflect the demographic of the community for children and specifically centering the needs of blacks and people of color.