By Mike Finney

DOVER — There are several things that combined to inspire Charlotte Phillips to start the “Books in The Barbershops and More” program, which is administered by the Education Committee of the Central Delaware NAACP.

Ms. Phillips had an experience in the summer of 2020 that served as a precursor to the “Books in The Barbershops and More” program.

That was when she was serving as a volunteer for voter registration at Groom Kings in downtown Dover.

Every Saturday morning as she sat inside the shop trying to attract new voters, she would see Black fathers and their sons streaming into the barbershop to get haircuts together.

For Ms. Phillips, that was enough evidence. She had found the perfect place to launch the reading program.

So, the Central Delaware NAACP’s Education Committee started placing their books in area barbershops, beauty salons, day care centers and women’s shelters.

Ms.  Phillips realized that barbershops were the perfect spot to place books that are written by people who look like them, with characters who look like them, and with themes they can relate.

“I just thought that was a great idea, so we went around and approached barbershops in downtown Dover and asked them if they’d be willing to have the books in their shops,” said Ms. Phillips. “Then one barber (Donnell Fears, owner of Donnell’s Salon for Men and Women on Loockerman Street) said, ‘Yes, then we could have reading nights in his shop.’

“So, that’s how it all got started.”

Ms. Phillips and members of the NAACP’s Education Committee knew this was exactly the kind of program they had been looking for.

Ms. Phillips, who grew up in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, laughs now and says she has two rooms full of books at her Dover home just waiting to be taken to barbershops — and more.

“Some of the barbers just let the kids take the books home and keep them, which is fine because I’m now in a position where I have enough books that I can replace them,” she said. “People have bought books for us and I’ve had colleges donate books.”

While the goal of the reading program is wanting children to get the experience of reading about authors who look like them, that is not always realistic, she added.

“I assumed over time that kids are interested in a wide range of books,” said Ms. Phillips. “We had a reading night (recently) and one woman read “I Am Every Good Thing” by Derrick Barnes, which features Black boys, and another read “Beautiful Blackbird” by Ashley Bryan, which is based on an African folktale … but then one little girl wanted to read “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”

“Older kids like adventure books, so I had found myself going to used book sites to buy books for kids say 9 to 18 (years old) — a wide variety of books.

“If I can I buy them by Black authors with Black characters — but not always — because kids that age have been exposed to a wide variety of books and like a wide variety of books.”

She has developed a list of more than 200 books by Black authors written for youths up to 18 years old. She also notes whether there is a YouTube video of the book being read aloud and if and where the books can be found in Delaware libraries.

“At all our giveaway events, we also promote the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which is accessed in Delaware through the library system,” Ms. Phillips said. “If increasing literacy is our goal, I believe we need to collaborate wherever possible.

“To that end, I have applied for two grants from Reading is Fundamental for their Books for Ownership program.”

Ms. Phillips said that barber Jakkari Hinton at CombDE in downtown Dover told her that his clientele is older, and he needed books on entrepreneurship and business development.

So, she bought some inspirational biographies of Black entrepreneurs and then remembered that a friend of hers had written a series of books for small business owners on how to write a business plan, how to decide what to charge for services, and how to keep track of the money.

Whatever the members of the Central Delaware NAACP can do to help spread some knowledge around the community is fine with them.

The organization has also placed books in the Do Care Doula Foundation Family Resource Center, Dover Educational and Community Center, and the James Williams State Service Center — all in Dover — and C4DKidz in Smyrna.

Ms. Phillips said the Central Delaware NAACP is happy to speak to community organizations about the “Books in The Barbershops” program. For more information, visit naacp2028books@gmail.com.

Staff writer Mike Finney can be reachedat 302-741-8230 or mfinney@iniusa.org.
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