A bookshop owner was targeted in a bias incident. The community rallied behind her.

SectionsTVFeaturedMore from NBC Follow NBC News Sandra Dear found the first note in a mailbox outside of her bookshop on Aug. 1, 2017, a day after it opened in Bayonne, New Jersey."Get out, we do not want your kind here," she said it read.Dear, who is Black, was disappointed but didn't make a big deal of it because she didn't want to overshadow the day before."On our grand opening, this town gave us the best reception ever," she said in an interview Thursday. She worked in the publishing industry for 15 years and before that as a buyer for J.C. Penney."I don't know of another place where I feel as at home as I do when I step into a bookstore, especially a small, independent bookstore," Dear said.The Little Boho Bookshop opened as a children's bookstore."But that only lasted about six months when the parents said, 'Hey. We read, too. We're going to support them as best as we can,'" she said.Dear was also bolstered by media mogul Oprah Winfrey, whose magazine included the Little Boho Bookshop on a list of Black-owned bookstores in the country over the summer."We saw a huge boost from that," Dear said.Julie Aly, 33, a manager at Judicke's Bakery in Bayonne, which her family has owned for more than two decades, said the community stands together in times of hardship and that the Little Boho Bookshop has been an important addition."Sandra is always doing events for the community and the children in the community and allows small businesses to host pop-up shops outside of her business on Sundays," Aly said.Although she doesn't know Dear personally, Aly said Dear "feels like a friend, not just a store owner." Aly said the Little Boho Bookshop is her favorite place in Bayonne."In March before the pandemic, my sister, best friend and I went into the bookstore to pick up a few things," Aly said.