Search bookstores by city, state or ZIP code
Hakim’s Bookstore & Gift Shop
About
Store Hours
Monday – Saturday: 11AM–6PM
Sunday Closed
About Us
DAWUD HAKIM
Founder of Hakims Bookstore
Dawud Hakim, was a prominent African American scholar, author, lecturer and publisher who established Hakim’s Bookstore in the late 1950’s in West Philadelphia. Mr. Hakim also owned and operated a bookstore in Atlanta, Georgia.
His consuming passion for health and education led him to open his first bookstore in the late 1950’s in West Philadelphia. His thirst for knowledge and information about the history of African Americans increased after reading books by the late J.A. Rogers, including “100 Amazing Facts about the Negro “ and “The Five Negro Presidents” , books still carried in the store today.
At that time it was virtually unheard of to stock books that exclusively addressed the history and culture of African Americans and Mr. Hakim was the first such entrepreneur in Philadelphia and one of only a handful in the country. Known throughout the country for his access to rare books and periodicals many scholars and students of history found that “Hakim’s House of Knowledge Bookstore” was the ground-breaking source of information not available in mainstream libraries and bookstores. Mainstream bookstores eventually began to wholesale from Hakim as he always seemed to carry books that weren’t available anywhere else.
210 S 52nd St Philadelphia PA 19139-4002 United States