It’s always been about access for Jeffrey and Pamela Blair. The couple founded EyeSeeMe African American Children’s Bookstore in St. Louis in 2015 because, when homeschooling their four children, they couldn’t find high-quality books that contained fully realized Black characters and presented African American culture and history respectfully. “We knew that if we could instill within our children a pride in their heritage and awareness of the great accomplishments of their forefathers that this would be the foundation that would allow them to grow into their full potential,” the Blairs wrote on the store’s website. “When children see the many contributions that people that look like them have accomplished and have contributed to the world, they begin to believe in their own limitless potential.”
EyeSeeMe has since broadened its scope to include books featuring BIPOC characters of other races and ethnicities, as well as characters with disabilities. “It’s still primarily African American in its focus,” Jeffrey says. “But we listened to our customers, who were telling us similar stories about their own quests to find high-quality books for their children. After all, it’s not just African Americans who are under-represented.”
EyeSeeMe has had a big impact upon scores of children—including, perhaps most famously, Sidney Keys III, a young man recently introduced to booksellers at Heartland Fall Forum. The 16-year-old author and founder of Books N Bros, a virtual book club for young Black men, told the booksellers that he was inspired to become a writer and literacy advocate after visiting EyeSeeMe at age 10. “A whole new world opened up to me,” Keys says. “People say Black teens don’t like to read, but they give us the most boring books to read—Black boys do like to read, but we want books that we can relate to, that interest us.”
This past year, EyeSeeMe’s reach radiated beyond St. Louis when it pushed back against the banning of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye by the Wentzville, Mo., school board. In partnership with In Purpose Educational Services, a local nonprofit, the store distributed free copies of The Bluest Eye and other banned books to students and parents who requested them. Initially it shipped books nationwide, but it now focuses on providing these books to Missourians. “We had to limit it,” Jeffrey notes, adding that, to date, approximately 2,000 banned books have been given away in this donor-funded initiative.
Asked why EyeSeeMe would take such a public stand, Jeffrey responds that most banned books contain Black characters and themes. “This was making the issue we were trying to solve even worse, by limiting the already-limited availability of African American titles in schools,” he says. “When someone tries to do this, to control the narrative, it goes against everything our store stands for. We had to do something.”
