07/30/2026
Last week, the building that houses Community Books was bought by Elisabeth Richmond, a local AirBnB "Superhost" and short-term rental landlord here in Stone Mountain. Two days ago, Ms. Richmond sent us a "Termination of Lease" notice, ordering us to vacate the building within 60 days, at which time Stone Mountain will once again be without a bookstore.
As many of you know, our building is in a state of extreme disrepair. The previous landlord did not maintain the building and a lot of maintenance, including some exterior maintenance, fell to us to keep the space habitable. We reached out to Ms. Richmond to convey the urgency of these issues while she was boasting on Facebook about having bought the building. Instead of addressing our concerns, she chose to kick us out.
It is worth noting that Elisabeth Richmond is a longtime supporter of Village Forward, a bogus nonprofit that promotes the interests of landlords and real-estate developers in Stone Mountain. That organization also opposed the removal of Confederate monuments in the city and even promoted Confederate tourism via the city cemetery, where dozens of white-supremacist monuments have been installed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans over the years, some as recently as 2010.
We at Community Books have publicly and consistently opposed ALL neo-Confederate influence in Stone Mountain, so it does not surprise us that Elisabeth Richmond has so swiftly moved to remove us. Indeed, we butted heads with her on these issues and others long before she bought the building. Her attack on Stone Mountain's ONLY bookstore now feels disturbingly personal.
For now, we have no idea what our future holds. Starting this weekend, we will host an extended deep-discount sale to thin down our inventory, and use those funds to settle up with our distributors, shore up our own independent publishing house, and then focus our energy on the upcoming Atlanta Radical Book Fair, which we are co-organizing with the Auburn Avenue Research Library this October 24th.
Patreon members, we need you now more than ever! Please stick with us and invite your friends and loved ones to join the Patreon as well. Independent publishing and volunteer community bookstores can only survive with your support—and that's doubly true for social movement book stores operating in the South.
Starting this Friday, July 31st, ALL BOOKS, zines, board games, etc, will be marked down 30% at checkout. Remember: most of our books are already marked down 50% from cover price, so this is a seriously good deal! Please come out and support!!
We'll send another email soon with more details about the sale. Keep in mind, since the store is closing, we will not be reordering anything or adding any inventory! If there are books you've had your eye on for a while, now is the time to bring them home! We will also be reaching out to bulk book buyers within the next couple weeks, so make sure to come through soon before another bookstore stakes their claim to our inventory.
And aside from all of that, we would simply love to see y'all again before things change! Customers and community members have been the highlight of this endeavor. Our conversations, shared activities, and of course, mutual book recommendations have brought so much joy to this project. Please come through and see us again!
Okay, that's everything for now. I am attaching the lease termination letter below, for anyone seeking more information
Thank you all for 3.5 years of learning and radical joy at Community Books of Stone Mountain! We will keep you updated as we move forward! See you this weekend!
-The Community Books Collective
