The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South

Libraries matter. They provide space for learning, community building, and solace. Yet access to libraries has never been equal. In The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South Wayne A. Wiegand and Shirley A. Wiegand offer an insightful and sweeping history of the ways Jim Crow practices shaped libraries and the multifocal efforts of black citizens to overturn racial segregation. Although library protests are often in the shadows of efforts to knock down segregation in other public facilities, the authors argue that such protests are notable because they were often spontaneous, happened outside of formal civil rights organizations, and frequently achieved success more quickly. As the Wiegands observe, library protests “played an important role ... as sites for trial-and-error desegregation efforts” (p. 205). The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South chronicles the struggles for public library access from the 1930s through the 1960s. With chapters devoted to the dynamics of race in southern states, we learn how segregation was implemented and resisted in South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. Crucially, the Wiegands also explicate the decades of inaction by the national American Library Association (ALA). Founded in 1876, the ALA, the Wiegands argue, failed to take a stand against segregation, never, for example, filing an amicus brief in the lawsuits brought by aggrieved African Americans. Along with the ALA's complicity through inaction, the Carnegie Corporation of New York institutionalized Jim Crow segregation by example, funding the 1902 construction of Atlanta's whites-only library and of a “colored” branch in 1914 in Savannah. Separate libraries could, at times, be a welcome alternative for black residents as they allowed access without the insults of having to use a separate entrance, separate restrooms, or read from a limited selection of discarded books. While the ALA stayed on the “periphery of desegregation activities,” people of all ages demanded justice

Archaeology · Atlanta · Civil rights · Desegregation · Political science · Sociology · History · Law · Library Science and Administration · Public Administration

• Religion, Cultural Politics, and Public Knowledge

  Open Access•M W Apple•Educational Policy•2022

  Add to list