Not in the books

Minstrel figurines and blackface makeup kits fill the cabinets. Tubes of “Darkie Toothpaste” and jugs of Mammy Ann Cane Syrup stock the shelves. Ads for “Black Joe Juice Grapes” and “Little African Licorice Drops” cover the walls, as do old restaurant signs like the one that reads, “Colored Served in the Rear”--the sign that inspired Gail Deculus-Johnson to open her African American memorabilia store.

The longtime collector had shown the sign to her 12-year-old son and he had said, “So what?” She “realized at that moment that if this wasn’t registering, I needed to be doing something more about it,” recalls Deculus-Johnson, who opened Sable Images on Crenshaw Boulevard with her husband, LeRyall. “I wanted to know the history that you didn’t find in the books.”

A youthful 48-year old, Deculus-Johnson has witnessed a shift in perception among African American customers since she started selling, particularly among the older generation. “They’d say, ‘It’s too painful, I’ve lived through it, I don’t want to see it again.’ There’s an acceptance now among kids--they want to learn more about black history.”

She culls the store’s inventory of several thousand items--from $20 copies of slave documents to a $2,800 movie poster of Josephine Baker in “Bobino”--at auctions, yard sales and swap meets. “People come in here and start crying--they’re shocked that this stuff exists,” she says of visitors, who include Damon Wayans (he purchased a circus coin-toss game), Rick James (ashtrays and a salt and pepper shaker set), Spike Lee (a vintage restaurant napkin holder) and rapper Fab Five Freddy (old cigar-related items).

“What’s really important is educating and sharing, especially for the younger people,” says Deculus-Johnson, whose ultimate goal is to establish a memorabilia museum. “I believe the more they know about their past and what their forefathers had to endure, the better they’re going to be in making decisions for the future.”

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Sable Images, 4343 Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles; (323) 296-8665.