Beloved bookstore Eso Won will close by year's end

LOS ANGELES - A beloved landmark is closing after decades in South Los Angeles. 

Eso Won Books is an independent, Black-owned bookstore - one of very few in the country. 

Co-owner James Fugate decided to make bookselling his career - ironically - after reading a book.

It was called "What Color Is Your Parachute?" - a self-help book designed to help the reader figure out what career to pursue. It was just one of many books that left a mark on him. 

"My favorite book - fiction - probably is ‘The Chaneysville Incident.’ That’s an old book that came out in the 80s, but I loved it," he said.

Fugate and his business partner Tom Hamilton opened the South LA treasure Eso Won Bookstore in the 80s. 

They've had shops on Slauson, La Brea, and now Degnan in Leimert Park.

But the company started as a sort of "books on wheels" - community events focused on access.

"Growing up, that was one thing that intrigued me. Why these books that I would eventually find and hear about in high school– I never saw at the public library," he said.

"Even in college you didn't find these books. Even in high school, you didn't find them being taught in schools. And now the fight is to stop them from being taught."

"But we wanted to make sure that those books were available to people and along with everything else."

Fugate says Eso Won has the best selection of African-American and African history books in one store anywhere in the country. 

They carry literature, poetry, cookbooks, children's books, books on art, and of course the latest releases almost all by Black authors. 

Then, there's the iconic book signings. 

They've hosted many from Dr. Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison, Rodney King and Muhammad Ali, to Spike Lee and Issa Rae.

"The most famous– we had a signing for Barack Obama before anybody had really ever heard of him in a big way. We had been in national news because he was the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review. When we hosted him for his book ‘Dreams From My Father,’ a lot of people had not read the book or heard of the book and we only had five people."

But that night obviously had a big impact on the future president. 

When Obama released his next book, "Audacity Of Hope," he told his publisher the only book signing he wanted to do was at Eso Won.

Through Eso Won, Fugate and Hamilton have been able to champion Black writers, sharing their stories, Black culture and history, with everyone. 

Books have changed Fugate's own life.

An end of Eso Won makes him sad. Or, closing this chapter makes him sad. 

But after working like this for 47 years, he's tired, saying he and Hamilton are ready to retire.

"I can remember when my mother called me– she was still in Detroit and she said she was retiring and I thought ‘well what will you do?’ and she says ‘I don’t want to go to work.’ And I understand that feeling, at some point you want a break."

The store is closing at the end of the year, but there's no set date yet. 

Also, they won't be selling books online either. 

If you're wondering how the beloved bookstore got its name, Eso Won comes from the city of Aswan, Egypt, using the Ethiopian spelling and meaning - water flows over rocks. Fugate said it's because knowledge flows through books.