3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way →

Drs. Raye and Julian Richardson, the founders of Marcus Books, met while attending Tuskegee University. In 1946, Julian opened Success Printing Co. in San Francisco’s Fillmore District, a vibrant center of Black culture at the time. In 1960, the couple founded Marcus Books—named in honor of Marcus Garvey—as a bookstore and publishing house dedicated to Black history, knowledge of self, and cultural empowerment.

Over the decades, Marcus Books has become a beloved literary and cultural institution, hosting legendary figures such as Toni Morrison, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Muhammad Ali, Angela Davis, Walter Mosley, Nikki Giovanni, and many others. Just as meaningful are the book clubs, intimate poetry readings, and everyday conversations that unfold within its walls—making Marcus not just a bookstore, but a community hub.

In 1976, as redevelopment efforts displaced Black communities from San Francisco, many families—including the Richardsons—moved to the East Bay. That same year, they opened a second Marcus Books location at 3900 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland. As daughter Blanche Richardson recalls, “When the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency began ‘redeveloping’ Blacks out of San Francisco... my parents opened a second store in Oakland.”

As the Richardsons grew older, Raye earned her doctorate from UC Berkeley and led the Black Studies department at San Francisco State. After Julian’s passing in 2000, Raye continued to operate the store until the Johnson family—Karen, Gregory, and Tamiko—took the reins, carrying forward its enduring legacy.