At Books for Thought in Tampa, virtually all of the shelves are lined with titles by African-Americans about African-Americans.
In July 1992, after wrapping up their Delta Sigma Theta convention in Baltimore, Wintons and some of her sorority sisters drove to Washington, D.C., to visit friends. In addition to the White House and the Delta house, they visited a few black-owned bookstores.
She discovered Octavia Butler, the popular African-American science-fiction writer. Wintons, who often read white romance novels "after a long hard day's work" as a financial analyst, also came upon romance novels with black characters.
"You had African-American romance novelists, but their characters were white," Wintons said. "These books had black characters. That was so fascinating to me. I said people have to know that these characters exist."
Five months later, Wintons, tired of buying books that interested her during trips away from Tampa, opened Books for Thought. The store, nestled between a coin laundry and a Cuban restaurant, devotes an entire bookcase to black romance novels.
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