The Marshall of Farish Street
Maati Primm of Marshall’s Music and Bookstore
Image Credit: The Tell Agency courtesy of Visit Jackson
The brick walkways of Farish Street hold memories and secrets of brass bands, sermons, civil rights and city strategy. Marshall’s Music & Book Store has borne witness to it all since 1938. It is not simply one of the oldest black-owned bookstores in the country. It is a living archive.
Founded during an age of segregation, Marshall’s opened its doors when African American readers in Mississippi had limited access to books that reflected their history, theology, politics and lived experience. Inside its walls, readers could find authors who were absent from mainstream shelves, along with sheet music, recordings and cultural materials that documented a parallel America.
Farish Street itself was once the commercial spine of Black Jackson. Doctors and lawyers practiced upstairs. Musicians played late into the night. Families dressed their best and walked block to block, conducting business and building wealth within their own ecosystem. In that ecosystem, Marshall’s was not a side stop, but a part of the intellectual current running through it all.
Third-generation owner Maati Jone Primm says, “We provided educational literature to black people in the Jackson area who did not have access to public libraries due to segregation. We also provided spiritual books and education materials to people around the metropolitan area.” The store, named after Primm’s grandmother, still carries hymnals, books and other educational information, with sheet music available to order. When you step inside today, you can feel the history in the walls. The shelves are dense with Black history, African spirituality, Christian theology, civil rights scholarship and contemporary voices pushing new conversations.
What makes Marshall’s remarkable is not only its longevity, but its posture. In an era of algorithm-driven recommendations and overnight shipping, this is a place built on human exchange and was built to last. Primm says Marshall’s impact and sustained foothold comes down to one idea, “Our ability to endure and to stand for something. If there is a fight for Farish Street we get in it.”
The store’s endurance mirrors the resilience of the Farish Street Historic District itself. The corridor has seen waves of decline and promise about what downtown Jackson can become. Yet, there are signs of hope. Through policy and partnership, a $30 million investment from Gulf Coast Housing Partnership is restoring 67 homes just a few blocks north in the nearby Leonard Court project, bringing new life to multiple blocks on the north side of the historic district. These homes are being renovated and made available in partnership with the Mississippi Regional Housing Authority VI.
Through it all, Marshall’s has remained a flagship of the area by providing residents with access to texts that shape civic engagement and cultural pride in the capital city, and by offering a neutral ground where people who might otherwise move in separate circles find common ground.
Every city has a heart and soul that remembers its past and looks to its future, and Jackson has one on Farish Street.
