The Louisville Free Public Library's Western Branch or Western Library is a public library in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
. It is a
Carnegie library and is the first public library built for
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 ...
staffed entirely by African Americans.
[It is not however the first Carnegie library built for African-Americans. Built in 1907 and opened the following year, it is predated by an ''academic'' library which opened in 1902 at the institution now known as ]Tuskegee University
Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature.
The campus was d ...
(a historically black university
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...
). Previously known as Louisville Free Public Library, Western Colored Branch, and registered as a historic site in that name, it is a branch of the
Louisville Free Public Library
The Louisville Free Public Library (LFPL) is the public library system in Louisville, Kentucky, and the largest public library system in the U.S. state of Kentucky.
History Formation
The Louisville Free Public Library was created in 1902 by an ...
system. It is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
[ With ]
History
The Western Colored Branch library first opened in September 1905 and was originally located at 1125 West Chestnut Street. At the time it was common for black libraries to be housed in rented or converted private facilities; when the Western Colored Branch first opened it was operated in three rented rooms in a private home.
Albert Ernest Meyzeek, principal of
Central High School at the time, was concerned about the lack of adequate reading and reference materials at the school. He challenged the 1902 legislation that created the Louisville Free Public Library system, on the basis that it did not adequately serve African Americans, and persuaded the city council to open a branch to fill this need. Meyzeek later pushed for a second black library, the Eastern Colored Branch (which opened in 1914).
Carnegie's involvement
In 1908, industrialist
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
donated funds to build a new library building. As a result, the Western Colored Branch became the first public library for African Americans in the American South that was housed in a Carnegie-funded facility. The new library building was designed by
McDonald & Dodd
William James Dodd (1862–1930) was an American architect and designer who worked mainly in Louisville, Kentucky from 1886 through the end of 1912 and in Los Angeles, California from early 1913 until his death. Dodd rose from the so-called First ...
.
The building is in plan, and is built of brick with stone trim.
[
The library was well received by the community.] It marked a new level of civic engagement by "the emerging, turn-of-the-century, southern black middle class" which was determined to "build positive community infrastuctures for purposes of racial uplift."
Early success (1910s-1930s)
Several prominent African-American librarians worked in the Western Branch and assisted in education and outreach programs for the local black community. Of particular note are Reverend Thomas Fountain Blue, who served as the administrative head of the Western and Eastern Colored Branches as well as Rachel Davis Harris, who served as the children's library specialist and chief assistant. Blue and Harris were influential in providing services to Louisville's African American community during the Jim Crow era. In 1917, about 12,000 people attended 498 meetings at both branches. Blue created a community outreach strategy, he said the library was much more than a place to store books. “With its reading and study rooms, its lecture and classrooms, it forms a center from which radiate many influences for general betterment. The people feel that the library belongs to them, and that it may be used for anything that makes for their welfare.”
The two branches (Western and Eastern) became community social centers and regional models for other libraries like it. The library included a Children's Department, which developed story time, debates, and special events. The library also held an annual spelling bee with Cup winners and cash rewards sponsored by Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., a local black educator. The prominent Douglass Debate Club for high school boys, which argued civil rights topics, studied and cooperated with this branch.
The library also helped set up forty classroom collections at eleven African American city and county schools. By 1935 this had expanded to eighty classroom collections as well as library services administered at two junior high schools and the development of 15 deposit stations. From 1912 to 1931, Blue also organized and held an apprenticeship librarian class, which was the "only opportunity for formal training for prospective black librarians" until the Hampton Library School was opened in 1925 in Virginia.
Recent developments
The library was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1975.[ In 2001, ]Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
anonymously donated $12,000 to keep the library from closure.
Today, the library is home to the African-American Archives, a collection of great historical documents and resources focusing on African-American narratives and experiences. Also within the Archives are documents belonging to Reverend Blue and Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., as well as his son, the poet Joseph Cotter, Jr.
See also
*Carnegie Branch Library (Meridian, Mississippi)
The Carnegie Branch Library at 13th St and 28th Ave in Meridian, Mississippi is one of two former Carnegie libraries in the city, both funded by a grant from Andrew Carnegie in 1904. This library was built for blacks while the other was built for w ...
has been asserted to be the only Carnegie library ever built for African Americans in the US. There are in fact 12 Carnegie libraries that were built to serve black residents. Louisville's Western branch was the first.
Notes
References
External links
Western Library
official site
{{authority control
Library buildings completed in 1907
Public libraries in Kentucky
Western Branch
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
* Western, New York, a town in the US
* Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
* Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that ...
African-American history in Louisville, Kentucky
Local landmarks in Louisville, Kentucky
National Register of Historic Places in Louisville, Kentucky
Beaux-Arts architecture in Kentucky
Carnegie libraries in Kentucky
1907 establishments in Kentucky
Libraries on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky