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[[continued]] graphs and gifts added to the vast collection of books.

Some people called it a "hate station," others flocked to it to explore its enlightening ideals. Vassar College history professor Norman Hodges called Michaux's a "shrine, a virtual citadel of learning and wisdom."

Michaux died in 1976 when he was 92 years old, but each spring, the Studio Museum in Harlem attempts to keep Michaux's work alive by sponsoring the Lewis H. Michaux Book Fair. Each year, two outstanding literary figures receive the Lewis H. Michaux Award which was presented to Marie Brown, editor-in-chief of Elan, a new black women's magazine and formerly a senior editor at Doubleday, and author Imamu Baraka. Display space was provided for large and small publishers to sell their reading material on the black experience. It's a once a year opportunity to stock up on works that are not easily purchased in bookstores around the city, and although participation by publishers was much smaller this year than it had been in the past, several seminars were offered which proved valuable to its participants who seemed hungry for the information and contacts which were available. Imamu Baraka, Clayton Riley, and Lionel Mitchell led a loud and heated discussion on the role of the black critic while the executive editors of the major black national magazines tossed the concepts of their publications around and reflected on what the future holds for black publications with lively participation from the audience. As the final event, Ossie Davis, John Oliver Killens, Sonia Sanchez, Addison Gayle, Woodie King and others paid tribute in a moving memorial to Hoyt Fuller who was executive editor of First World Magazine when he died in May.

Despite a futile storm of protest from Harlemites by the hundreds, from community

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leaders around the country and around the world, Michaux was evicted in 1974 by the State of New York to make room for the Harlem State Office Building. Nelson Rockefeller, then Governor, promised Michaux a space in the new complex to reopen. Michaux died before that promise could be fulfilled, but his son, Lewis, Jr., age 26, has announced that he will reopen the store with some rare editions which he saved from the old store and some contemporary titles on black literature and history.

The new National Memorial Book Store will be located at Plaza 9 (on the east side of the Harlem State Office Building) as soon as construction by the Harlem Urban Development Corporation is complete.

Michaux lived in an apartment with his wife Betty and Lewis, Jr., on 108th Street in Harlem. His feelings about his community were clear, "I been living in ghettos and I'm able to move out of them. But I won't go 'cause I sometimes go up on the mountain and they say nice things about me and praise me but I shake my head and this is nice, but I tell 'em I've got to go. That's where I made it, in the valley, so I got to go back to the valley. I love Harlem and I wouldn't move out of here for nothing."

Lewis H. Michaux was born August 3, 1884, in Taylor's Row, a slave colony near Newport News, Virginia. He was the older brother of Elder Solomon "Lightfoot" Michaux, the "Happy Am I" preacher who got rich from the enthusiastic response to his Radio Church of God. Solomon Michaux died a real estate tycoon, one of the richest black men in America with holdings and churches in seven eastern cities worth 50 million dollars.

But Lewis walked away from the church after 25 years. "I don't deal with gods, I deal with reality and things I can do," he 
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[[image: photograph of Louis Michaux speaking, standing in front of his bookshelves, wearing a dark jacket, stripy shirt with long collar, stripy tie with a button on it bearing a photo of someone.]]
remarked. And, although he had the utmost respect for Malcolm X's political acumen, he frowned upon Malcolm's constant deference to Allah or Elijah Muhammad whenever Malcolm spoke. "I was born in the church, but I'm born again and don't want any religion that will demand me to lose my individuality," he told his friends.
Although he divorced himself from the church, his store offered many benefits of a house of worship--it was a place of refuge, promising self-help, education and social elevation.

Many young people who came in were guided to books like The World's Greatest Men of Color or biographies of outstanding scholars like Dr. Charles Drew, or treatises by independent black thinkers. They were encouraged by the words they read to go out and achieve. They often returned as doctors or lawyers or members of some other profession to thank Michaux and some brought their children with them. This please Michaux and brought warm tears of joy to see how his life's commandment helped others: "The world is my home, mankind is my friend, doing good is my religion."
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Sharon Y. Lopez, a freelance writer, is a resident of New York City.

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