\u201cI know why people hoard,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s because they\u2019re trying to fill an empty spot. And the empty spot that I was trying to fill was my daughter and my granddaughter that were gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Robinson in Willa\u2019s Books and Vinyl. Jade Williams with The Kansas City Defender.<\/p>\n
At first, collecting books was a personal pursuit. But as her collection took up more and more space at home, Robinson began selling books \u2014 first out of an empty room in a Kansas City federal building; then as a street vendor in the mid-90s<\/a>; then out of her first store in 2007. Willa\u2019s Books and Vinyl reopened<\/a> at its current location in 2021. The business, in its various iterations, is the oldest Black-owned bookstore in Missouri and the collection now exceeds 20,000 books. Some date back to the 19th century \u2014 the collection includes first editions by Frederick Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Laurence\u00a0Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B De Bois, and Langston Hughes.<\/p>\n Robinson told me she never saw Black people \u2014 and Black children \u2014 in books growing up. \u201cOne of the reasons that I got into books was that I thought Black children need to see themselves in books,\u201d she said. (When a Black child came into her store, she\u2019d sometimes give books away to them for free.)<\/p>\n This month, Robinson retired, and Willa\u2019s Books and Vinyl closed its doors. But thanks to The Kansas City Defender<\/a>, a local news nonprofit<\/a>, the collection isn\u2019t going anywhere. Instead, the Defender is fundraising to purchase the collection and turn it into a public archive, making \u201cMiss Willa\u2019s\u201d bookstore space into its first-ever public headquarters.<\/p>\n For the Defender, taking over this space and purchasing the archive are examples of what it means to go beyond news coverage to serve its community.<\/p>\n Nina Kerrs first walked into Robinson\u2019s store in the winter of 2023. At the time, Kerrs was volunteering for the Defender, which she loved, but was unhappy in her day job, and \u201clooking for something that I could do with my time that felt fulfilling and purposeful to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Kerrs, who\u2019s 22, \u201ctotally fell in love with [Robinson] and her store and the atmosphere,\u201d she said. The store was homey, full of books stacked up to the ceiling, with vinyl records playing in the background. (The first book Kerrs bought there, she said, was Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music, by Frank Kofsky.) Kerrs began spending time with Robinson, helping her around the store. She described Robinson as one of her best friends and \u201ca legendary person to me.\u201d<\/p>\n For Robinson, the upkeep of the store was becoming a physical and financial burden, and family members were encouraging her to retire. Last summer, after speaking with an out-of-state antique dealer interested in auctioning off her books, Robinson told Kerrs she had decided to shutter the store and sell her collection.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really taken aback,\u201d Kerrs told me. The store was a place she felt safe, and had become a sort of second home. \u201cI immediately came to the Defender about it\u2026I was just like, guys, I\u2019m really worried we are about to lose our longest-standing Black bookstore, and we are going to lose a huge staple for Black culture in our city. And this is terrifying. What can we do?\u201d<\/p>\n Robinson and Kerrs in the bookstore.<\/p>\n The team, Kerrs said, was responsive to her distress. Within a day, about five volunteers from The Defender met with Robinson. They told her how much her store, and collection, meant to the community.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t know how any of this would work, but we were just like, give us a month to try to come up with a plan,\u201d Defender founder and executive editor Ryan Sorrell<\/a> told me. (Sorrell added that he\u2019s purchased a Richard Wright autobiography, a James Baldwin book, and the autobiography of Ida B. Wells from Robinson\u2019s store.)<\/p>\n This was Robinson\u2019s first introduction to the Defender. \u201cIt\u2019s this wonderful group of young people,\u201d she said. \u201cThey came in, and were very kind, very supportive of me and the books.\u201d She agreed to give them that time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see very broad attacks on Black education, Black literacy, Black information in Missouri,\u201d Sorrell said. \u201cWith the rise and proliferation of disinformation and the erasure of Black histories, the thought of her having to sell this bookstore that literally houses first-edition Frederick Douglass books, that houses books dating back to 1863 \u2014 the thought of losing that history, particularly in this political moment, was devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n That structure offered a foundation for the Defender to step up for Robinson in some ways that might seem unusual for a news organization.<\/p>\n In August 2024, the Defender began paying the store\u2019s rent for Robinson. On the editorial side, the Defender put together a story spotlighting her need for support<\/a> that it co-published<\/a> with the Kansas City Call<\/a>, the city\u2019s historic Black newspaper, resulting in about 80 people reaching out to volunteer. Next, Kerrs and campaign co-director Lauren Winston organized a team of 40 volunteers, who spent six to eight months cataloguing Robinson\u2019s collection of 20,000+ books. (Kerrs is now on staff, but everyone else was a volunteer, Sorrell said. Some volunteers had library and archival backgrounds.)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_1269-1-scaled.jpg\")
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<\/a>While the Defender is a news organization, it has long seen its mission as broader and deeper than reporting alone. On top of its editorial operations, the Defender runs a community programs wing, which provides mutual aid such as free grocery and clothing programs<\/a>. Sorrell described this work as a \u201cvery organic evolution\u201d from the Defender\u2019s purely editorial roots. When the Defender broke the story about a serial killer targeting Black women in Kansas City in 2022<\/a>, many readers reached out wanting to volunteer or take some kind of action; the Defender ultimately organized a vigil for the women killed. \u201cThat was a moment of realization, for me, that we did need this entire second wing of the organization,\u201d Sorrell said. One local who got involved with the Defender\u2019s community programs after that vigil: Kerrs.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/KCDefender-700x700.jpg\")
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