Obituary Note: Marshall Taylor

Marshall Taylor, longtime owner and founder of the Aframerican Bookstore in Omaha, Neb., died on July 7 at age 83, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

After a career in the Air Force, Taylor and a business partner opened two hair and beauty supply shops. In one of the locations, Taylor created a small bookstore in the front that eventually took the name Aframerican Bookstore and was officially founded in 1990.

Taylor's future wife, Annlattea "Annette" Green-Taylor, worked as a nail technician and helped Taylor with the books. As the paper wrote, "They fell for each other and grew the book business, turning the old salon into a classroom where Taylor would teach history--the kind he said was left out of history books."

Green-Taylor said, "My husband always has been into books, into knowledge. You could tell because he was a walking encyclopedia. He always was a reader."

Besides books, the Aframerican Bookstore has also offered T-shirts, posters, art, shea butter lotion and "a cologne named for the first black president, Barack Obama."

The store has also been a community hub for "meetings and unofficial social work, healing and therapy," a place that Green-Taylor said has an atmosphere alive with the spirit of "ancestors."

The paper added, "Taylor did not shy away from difficult subjects and was passionate about African and African American history, the legacy of racism and unjust systems. But his approach was to educate. In his shop, a seeker could find in him a patient and hospitable host who drew a line on one subject--himself.

"He was private and wanted to keep the lens on the larger issues of the day when news reporters came calling. But he had dreamed about writing his own story in his own way."

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Taylors had to close the bookstore temporarily in March. It hasn't reopened but has benefited from widespread interest in anti-racist books, particularly after being on a black-owned business list. Taylor-Green plans to continue online operations until reopening the store "when she feels that it's safe."

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