‘We Always Rise.’ A Black-Owned Bookstore Navigates the Pandemic

Source of Knowledge has been a Newark mainstay for decades. It survived the past year thanks to the generosity of its customers and an owner who provides more than just books.

NEWARK — Dexter George, the owner of Source of Knowledge, a bookstore on Broad Street here, wore a tool belt as he walked through aisles dotted with djembe drums and past walls lined with Ghanaian masks. Smoke coiled upward from a bowl of burning sage. Mr. George, 56, has kept his business operating partly by practicing caution during the pandemic. Even when he opened his front door to start the workday, he kept the key in the inside lock; all customers who were allowed in were quickly directed to have their temperature taken and take a squirt of hand sanitizer. Mr. George eyed them through a hard plastic face shield. “There’s a lot of people we aren’t seeing again,” he said. “This virus is going around in a circle until it gets everybody.”