Freedom libraries were community libraries set up by activist organizations and private individuals to serve

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

during the civil rights movement. Many of these libraries were established in the summer of 1964, during a broader project of voter registration and other civil rights activism. The history of freedom libraries was largely unknown until scholar Karen Cook wrote an in-depth dissertation on the topic.

Background

During the first half of the twentieth century, most African Americans living in the Southern United States lacked access to tax-supported public libraries. Due to their support of racial segregation, White Southerners severely restricted or completely blocked African Americans’ use of existing public libraries. Although Southern public library systems were forced to nominally desegregate their facilities, often as a result of lawsuits filed by African Americans, many still preserved the spirit of segregation.

Establishment

As part of the civil rights movement, African American activists and their allies challenged many types of racial discrimination, including in public libraries. Public libraries were sometimes the site of

sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...

s and other forms of

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

. In the 1960s, supportive organizations and individuals started creating freedom libraries to assist activists with their work and provide local African Americans with the library service previously denied to them by White leaders. The first freedom libraries were created by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a partnership of the

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segrega ...

, the Congress of Racial Equity, and the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

. Freedom libraries were often located in

Freedom Schools Freedom Schools were temporary, alternative, and free schools for African Americans mostly in the South. They were originally part of a nationwide effort during the Civil Rights Movement to organize African Americans to achieve social, political and ...

or Community Centers. Although there were freedom libraries across the country, approximately 50 freedom libraries were created in Mississippi during the summer of 1964. That summer was known as

Freedom Summer Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi. ...

, a time period in which many volunteers came to Mississippi to create Freedom Schools and register African Americans to vote. Freedom Summer volunteers were typically young, primarily a mix of progressive White college students and African Americans already involved in civil rights organizing. Freedom libraries have also been documented in Alabama, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania. One Alabama library, the Selma Free Library, was preferred by some students of Selma University over that of their own institution. Freedom libraries carried books "typical" of other American libraries, but also paid special attention to books about African American people or written by Black authors. Freedom libraries were as large as 20,000 books, or small mobile libraries and many were created entirely with donated books. These donations were often provided by volunteers from

northeastern states The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...

. Book donations came from individuals and organizations including teachers, booksellers, and publishers. Freedom libraries were established in spaces including churches and houses. In addition to books, freedom libraries offered other library services, including workshops and children's events, as well as existing as public community spaces.Cook, Karen Joyce (2008).
Freedom Libraries in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project: A History
''. Tuscaloosa, AL. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Communication and Information Sciences in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama.

Challenges

Freedom libraries faced numerous challenges, including vandalism, fire-bombing, and other acts of terrorism at the hands of White residents and

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

members. One bombing took place in October 1964 in Vicksburg, destroying over 9,000 books. Nobody was killed in the Vicksburg bombing, likely because boxes of books bore the brunt of the explosion. Landlords were reluctant to rent properties to freedom libraries because of the frequency of violent incidents. Although COFO volunteers attended an orientation to learn how to provide library services, most did not have any formal library training. Because of volunteers' inexperience, as well as limited funding, some libraries were less successful than others in providing library services. Additionally, a lack of clarity surrounding COFO organizational structure posed challenges for effectively running the libraries.

Impact

Freedom libraries raised awareness among the broader United States population about the civil rights activism taking place in Mississippi. Karen Cook argues that the civil rights movement benefited from its public association with libraries. Although most freedom libraries did not remain in existence longer than a few years after their establishment, they had a significant impact on the communities they served. Freedom libraries were the only type of library available to many African Americans in the South, and were the only place they could access books and periodicals outside of local news coverage. Civil rights activist Richard James said that it was important for Black people to know about their own history. For many African Americans, these libraries were the first time they had access to this information.

References

Libraries Civil rights movement 1964 in Mississippi {{Civil-rights-movement-stub