Shooting from the hip here, but my guess is that the “African-American section” started further upstream than the physical bookshelf, in attempts to remedy disc

Shooting from the hip here, but my guess is that the “African-American section” started further upstream than the physical bookshelf, in attempts to remedy discrimination. Agree with the tag vs category challenge in discovering books. For example, if OP wanted to understand prevailing social and political attitudes in 1960s Black America, instead of specifically Baldwin, then it’s easier to have an African-American section than search for needles in the haystack of anthropology sub-categories. On a separate note, wondering how the OP experience might be different on Amazon.com instead of inside a physical Borders Books. You search for Baldwin and get your own echo chamber of the “African-American section” algorithmically produced through a combination of related titles and your own personal preferences.