COLLINGSWOOD – Jeannine A. Cook has a vision of opening bookstores around the country named after impactful and heroic African American women in history.
Her dream started with Harriett’s Bookshop in Philadelphia and continued with the opening of Ida’s Bookshop in Collingswood, a sister bookshop to Harriett’s.
The former is named for Harriet Tubman, a famous abolitionist, activist and conductor on the Underground Railroad. Ida’s is named for Ida B. Wells, who was a prominent activist, educator and journalist.
Cook opened Ida’s in 2021 and recently thought she might have to shut down due to an impending rent hike. But she threw a “rent party” and the community rallied around her, helping the shop raise more than $23,000, good enough to pay the rent for the next year. A GoFundMe helped raise much of the funds before the party even took place. (It’s more than $25,000 now).
But, Cook, always a visionary, wanted to do something more. She put her head together with Isis Williams, board president of the Haddon Township Equity Initiative, and formed a “Trailblazers Trolley Tour” for Black History Month. The tour, which will be held on Feb. 25, is sold out, but will highlight about 25 Black businesses along Haddon Avenue.
There will be two trips — at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. — up and down Haddon Avenue from Collingswood, Haddon Township and Haddonfield to Camden and back. There will be multiple stops at or near Black businesses where trolley participants can hop on and off to support “cultural, creative and culinary Black-owned businesses and vendors.”
The pickup begins at Ida’s at 743 Haddon Avenue.
“This is what our communities have always done for ourselves on this soil — take care of each other,” Cook explained. “Lift each other up. You bring the lettuce from your garden, you bring the tomatoes, you bring the onions, you bring the carrots, and together we make a salad that sustains us all. For far too long, folks have served us desserts and expected us to dance and sing for crumbs, and I think a new, much healthier day has come.”
Creating the Trailblazers Tour on Haddon Avenue
The tour was born when Williams and Cook were collaborating about the rent party, which took place on January 15, Martin Luther King Day.
“We were talking about how the community really needs to continue to show up,” Williams said. “The concept of community engagement, community economics. The community, if they want these local, small businesses that are Black owned, especially, to be sustained, then they have an obligation to do so.
“The tour came about as a way to highlight Black businesses on Haddon Avenue and kind of cross the invisible lines of the towns. Haddon runs from Camden all the way to Haddonfield. … We wanted the opportunity to literally take a tour down the avenue, crossing the various communities as a way to connect the communities, literally and figuratively, and highlight Black businesses, particularly the ones that are on the avenue, because there are many that people are unaware of.”
Cook, who would like to buy a building n Collingswood for her bookshop, said there are 124,000 Black-owned employer firms in the U.S., which represent just 2.2% of all employer businesses. Those Black-owned businesses, she said, are smaller, with lower average revenues, and lower average payroll expenditures than businesses overall.
Black businesses to check outSouth Jersey Black-owned restaurants and businesses to support year-round
“Our municipalities have grown slow and bloated,” said Cook, who hosted a party at Ida’s on Feb. 3 to thank the community. “They often can’t or won’t move at the same speed, creativity or reliability as the individuals in our community — especially when it comes to supporting small businesses and our cultural institutions — specifically ones owned or operated by people who look like me.
“Therefore, it makes most sense to cut out the middleman and go directly to the source, the people, and invite them to come together with us. We can no longer look to outsiders what we just do for ourselves.”
More about the trolley tour
Williams said the tour won’t deviate from the avenue but will extend the opportunity for Black-owned businesses to participate that are not on the avenue in collaboration with business that are. There will be popups and collaborations with other businesses that aren’t necessarily all Black owned.
Curate Noir, located at 1327 Haddon Avenue in Camden, will host a number of Black businesses in their space, Williams said. The trolley tour will end back at Ida’s where guests will be treated to a performance by the TrumpetChics.
Tour participants will get a map outlining the participating vendors and how they can be supported. A tour guide will also share some of the historical Black contributions to the South Jersey area.
“We often discuss how people will show up because it’s Black History Month or they’ll show up because it’s Juneteenth,” Williams said. “But what are you doing in a real way to support businesses outside of historic holidays?”
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