10/23/2026
Congratulations, on this recognition!!! We see you.
Derrick and Ramunda Young started MahoganyBooks in 2007 with nothing but a laptop and a shared mission, working out of their one-bedroom apartment in Alexandria, Virginia. 📚 “We were trying to identify how we could make a bigger impact in this world and still be connected to culture and community,” Ramunda said. “Books were very personal for us. We would go on dates in bookstores.” Derrick had grown up with easy access to Black literature — Ramunda hadn’t, and that gap became the whole point of the business.
In 2017, the online bookstore finally opened its first physical location in Anacostia, becoming the first bookstore to open in that historic DC neighborhood in over two decades. They later expanded to a second location at National Harbor in 2021, right in the middle of the pandemic. Along the way, they’ve hosted literary icons like Misty Copeland, Congressman John Lewis, Omar Epps, and even welcomed former President Barack Obama, who personally joined a discussion with their book club about his memoir, A Promised Land.
Today, they run the family business alongside their daughter, Mahogany — who the store is named after — and their give-back program, Books for the Block, continues putting Black literature directly into the hands of local kids. “Black history happens 12 months out of the year,” Ramunda says. Two people, one laptop, one shared belief — now a nationally recognized institution. ❤️
Source: NBC News / The Root
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