Bookseller, Dr. Sharon Ames-Dennard, Named '2002 Working Mother of the Year.'

Before 1989, Dr. Sharon Ames-Dennard -- who in April was named "2002 Working Mother of the Year" by Working Mother magazine -- had never set eyes on a black bookstore. There were none in her rural hometown of Cheapside, Virginia -- population 1,000 -- nor any in the areas of Florida where she attended graduate and undergraduate schools. But an internship in Los Angeles led her to the Aquarius, Eso Won Books, and other black bookstores in the area, where she discovered a new passion.

"I knew I was going to be a catalyst in helping black people rise to their original African glory, especially the children. That’s when I decided to open an African-centered bookstore," said Ames-Dennard, a licensed clinical psychologist; an administrator for her own African-centered school; a director of student counseling at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida; a radio host; wife of psychologist Dana Dennard; and mother of three. Returning to Tallahassee, Ames-Dennard started her bookstore in 1990, leasing a 2,500-square-foot space, which included both bookstore selling space and an office for the couple’s joint counseling practice.

"I opened Amen-Ra Bookshop and Gallery … with 32 books we received from Baker & Taylor," said Ames-Dennard. "We worked and lived in the back of the bookstore for several months. There was a bathroom with a toilet and sink, but it didn’t have hot water. We had to use a hot plate to heat up water so we could take our baths in an Igloo cooler."

The bookstore was designed to empower black people to lead and not just follow. For Ames-Dennard, gaining the motivation and direction of self-knowledge is key. "If we can see ourselves in positive roles that would be our own mental health intervention."

A central goal of the store is to channel all business profits back to employees and the community. "The bookstore was designed to impact minds and help the college students we hire to believe they can own something," Ames-Dennard explained. "I make enough in my counseling practice and consulting work to live comfortably."

Today, Amen-Ra Bookshop and Gallery has a growing inventory as well as a selection of African clothing, art, masks, custom framing, natural health care products, and jewelry. Importantly, the store also is a cultural hub for local authors and artists. "Our biggest challenges are broadening our customers’ reading interests and getting them inside the store," said Ames-Dennard.

For Ames-Dennard, the goal of educating black youth and affecting lives does not end in the bookstore. After testing hundreds of children with behavior problems and watching them labeled and ignored, Ames-Dennard developed the Sakkara Youth Institute, a private school based on a model she designed where children graduate from high school at age 15 and receive a full scholarship to college.

What started as a summer intervention program in 1993 has evolved into a year-round private school, currently teaching 20 children from pre-K to eighth grade. "Named after the first learning institute in Kenya, Sakkara students are two and three grades higher than public school kids. They’re in the 90 percentile," said Ames-Dennard.

Ames-Dennard’s commitment to work began early in her life. Her family lived without indoor plumbing until she was in fourth grade. As a child, she often picked fruits and vegetables with her mother in the fields and helped her father make fishing nets for his job as a waterman. She attributes her strong work ethic and ability to juggle many tasks to her mother. But her first life’s business lessons she attributes to her father. Whenever she earned money, she was only allowed to keep a small portion, the rest went to maintaining the family household. "At an early age, I knew how much the mortgage was; how much we spent on utilities and learned how to balance a checkbook," she explained. -- Gayle Herbert Robinson