Our story

We're Not the First. We're Just the Only Right Now.

In 1978, Mr. and Mrs. Wells — lifelong educators, teachers, principals, district leaders — opened Afro-In Books & Things in Liberty City. They knew their community needed a Black bookstore. They built one. DC Clark and others carried that legacy forward for decades.

Afro-In Books & Things stood just two buildings down from where our Black House would later stand on 7th Avenue. The geography is not a coincidence. Neither is the mission.

When a founder connected to that era walked into Roots and saw what had been built, he was moved to tears. He felt that the work his generation had done hadn't gone in vain. That someone had been inspired, had picked up the mantle, and was doing it again for the city.

Dr. Earl Caswell Wells passed away in 2016 at 91 years old. His legacy didn't.

We are not starting something new. We are continuing something that never should have stopped.

Read more about Dr. Earl Wells and Afro-In Books & Things →

Earl Wells, Founder of Miami’s First Black Bookstore

Dr. Earl Caswell Wells, Visionary and Educator

Daniel "Danny" William Agnew was born on March 23, 1989, in Chicago, Illinois. Raised on the South Side in West Englewood, he was the third of four sons. Thirty-seven years later, on that same date, this store would host its first official Danny Day in his honor.

An entrepreneur, activist, community builder, and mentor, Danny dedicated his life to uplifting Black communities and creating opportunities for others. He started quiet. He became someone people leaned toward when he walked into a room.

His early life wasn't without struggle. As a teenager, he spent time in a correctional boot camp. What came after is the story that matters. He made a decision, changed his path, and never looked back. After relocating to Miami in 2012, he joined the organizers who founded Dream Defenders in the wake of Trayvon Martin's killing. That moment set the direction for everything that followed.

In 2015, he co-founded The Roots Collective, a community hub built to uplift Black culture, support Black entrepreneurs, and connect people to resources and each other. From that grew the Village (Free)dge, providing free food to families in need, youth programs, after-school spaces, and a printing and apparel business. He didn't just organize. He built.

Danny was widely known for his fearless leadership, visionary thinking, and unwavering commitment to social justice. He believed in the power of community collaboration and worked tirelessly to preserve and uplift Black culture and history in Miami. He created platforms for education, economic empowerment, and cultural expression, and encouraged everyone around him to build businesses and institutions that truly served the people. He invested in young people the same way others had failed to. That was his practice. That was his legacy.

Danny Agnew passed away on June 15, 2023, at 34 years old, following a multi-car crash on I-95.

His legacy lives on through The Roots Collective, the youth and entrepreneurs he mentored, and the many community members committed to continuing the mission he began: building stronger communities grounded in justice, empowerment, and love for the people.

We're not finished.

#LLDanny #CompleteTheMission

Danny Day: March 23 (est. 2026)
Every year, we gather to remember and to build, because the work continues.

Ask anyone who knows him and they'll tell you the same thing — Isaiah "Zaybo" Thomas has spent years understanding what communities need when they're being forgotten, and building toward it anyway.

He's the co-founder of Roots Bookstore & Market and Assistant Principal at Paul Lawrence Dunbar School in Historic Overtown. His role in the classroom and his role here aren't two separate things. They're expressions of the same belief: that access to knowledge, to story, to history is something every person deserves.

Isaiah’s work is dedicated to the idea that this community deserves spaces that see it, hold it, and invest in it. Roots is one of those spaces. So is every room he walks into.