{{Short description|Radical bookstore and community space in Boston, US}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2025}}
[[File:Lucy Parsons Center July 2026.jpg|thumb|280px|The Lucy Parsons Center in its present location in Jamaica Plain]]
The '''Lucy Parsons Center''', located in [[Jamaica Plain]], [[Boston, Massachusetts]], is a radical, nonprofit [[independent bookstore]] and [[self-managed social center]]. Formed out of the Red Word bookstore, it is collectively run by volunteers. The center provides reading material, space for individuals to drop in, and a free space for meetings and events.

== History ==

The Red Book Store (now the Lucy Parsons Center) began in 1969<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mancini |first1=Ryan |title=The Lucy Parsons Center, a radical bookstore and space for social movements |url=https://www.masslive.com/boston/2024/01/the-lucy-parsons-center-a-radical-bookstore-and-space-for-social-movements.html |access-date=6 April 2025 |publisher=MassLive |date=15 January 2024}}</ref> in a small one-room basement shop in [[Central Square, Cambridge]]. It moved two or three times in the first couple of years, before settling into what would be its home until 1983 in a large space on the corner of River and Pleasant streets in Cambridge. In 1983 the project moved to [[Jamaica Plain, Boston]]. It stayed there until May 1994, returning to Central Square, where it stayed four years until it was evicted so the building could be demolished. In May 1998 it moved into a temporary space in [[Davis Square, Somerville]].<ref name="History">{{cite web |last1=Bekken |first1=Jon |last2=Herod |first2=James |last3=Gynn |first3=Betsy |title=An Early History Of The Lucy Parsons Center |url=http://lucyparsons.org/history.php |website=lucyparsons.org |access-date=27 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323204714/http://lucyparsons.org/history.php |archive-date=23 March 2019}}</ref> Davis Square was a temporary location and with sales suffering, the center was flooded and had to make an appeal for support.<ref name="Slingshot">{{cite news |title=Lucy Parsons Center: Please help |url=https://slingshotcollective.org/5c309a0d7c33851e6e16ae028ef4a8ed/ |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=Slingshot |issue=62 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727121312/https://slingshotcollective.org/5c309a0d7c33851e6e16ae028ef4a8ed/ |archive-date=27 July 2019}}</ref> In 1999, the project moved to the [[South End of Boston]] and finally moved back to Jamaica Plain in 2011.<ref name="WBUR">{{cite news |last1=Jobson |first1=C. Shardae |title=The Lucy Parsons Center, Where Boston's Radicals Shop For Books |url=https://www.wbur.org/artery/2017/08/07/lucy-parson-center-shardae-jobson |access-date=27 July 2019 |work=WBUR |date=7 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001215206/http://www.wbur.org/artery/2017/08/07/lucy-parson-center-shardae-jobson |archive-date=1 October 2018}}</ref>

The center's namesake, [[Lucy Parsons]], was a radical labor organizer and [[anarchocommunist]] in Chicago from the 1880s onwards. She is remembered as a powerful orator.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary|last=Carolyn|first=Ashbaugh|publisher=Haymarket Books|year=2011|location=Chicago}}</ref> It was a reformulation of the Red Book Store, which was set up in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] in 1969.<ref name="History" /> One of the original founders was professor and activist [[George Katsiaficas]].<ref name="Socialism">{{cite news |last1=Sims |first1=Anna |title=The Rise of Socialism in Boston |url=https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2019/02/22/boston-socialism/ |access-date=27 July 2019 |date=22 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223155354/https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2019/02/22/boston-socialism/ |archive-date=23 February 2019}}</ref> Initially [[Maoist]], the bookshop was run by an [[anarchist]] collective until the late 2010s and is currently operated by a multi-tendency revolutionary collective.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

By the mid 1990s, the center was part of an established network of North American [[infoshop]]s which included Long Haul in Berkeley, A-Space in Philadelphia and Who's Emma in Toronto.<ref name="Dodge">{{cite news |last1=Dodge |first1=Chris |title=Street Libraries: Infoshops and Alternative Reading Rooms |url=http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7423/infoshop.html |access-date=25 July 2019 |work=Utne Reader |date=1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027155038/http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/7423/infoshop.html |archive-date=2009-10-27}}</ref>

== Activities ==
When it was rebirthed in 1992, the center became a nonprofit organization with a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.<ref name="History" /> The volunteer-run bookshop sells books, pamphlets and zines. One of the most popular books is ''[[A People's History of the United States]]'' by [[Howard Zinn]].<ref name="WBUR" /> Apart from the bookstore, the Lucy Parsons Center serves as a space for community organizers to use for meetings and special events. It also hosts a weekly movie night.<ref name="Obscura">{{cite web |title=Lucy Parsons Center Radical Bookstore and Community Space |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/lucy-parsons-center |website=Atlas Obscura |access-date=27 July 2019}}</ref>

The center also helps provide free books to prisoners through the [[Prison Book Program]].

[[Image:Lucy Parsons Center panoramic.jpg|thumb|center|896px|Inside the Lucy Parsons Center's previous location in Back Bay]]

==See also==
* [[Bluestockings (bookstore)|Bluestockings]]
* [[Firestorm Books & Coffee]]
* [[Red Emma's]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==

* {{official website|https://www.lucyparsonscenter.org}}

{{Infoshops}}

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[[Category:Buildings and structures in Boston]]
[[Category:Infoshops]]
[[Category:Anarchist bookstores]]
[[Category:Independent bookstores of the United States]]
[[Category:Socialism in Massachusetts]]