The town auctioned from the brand new Colored Carnegie Collection building for the March 1962

Several months until the branch closed in mid-1961, the brand new library got revealed its capital improve program, that would encompass the building out of twigs all around the area through the 1960s. The best buyer dissolved it instantly, saving just the cornerstone. (24) Brand new library which was thought a substitute for the new Coloured Part established during the 3511 Reed Street, inside the a mainly black colored people. Urban area and you may collection officials faithful new facility, entitled brand new W. L. D. Johnson Sr. Branch honoring among the founders of original Coloured Carnegie Library, towards June 16, 1964 (Houston Public Collection, 1966, p. 17).

Cole, T. R. (1997). No colour try my form: Living out of Eldrewey Stearns and the integration regarding Houston. Austin: College or university of Tx Push.

Hine, D. C. (1979). Black colored win: An upswing and you can slide of your white number one in Colorado. Millwood, NY: KTO Drive.

Pitre, Yards. (1999). Inside battle against Jim crow: Lulu B. Light therefore the NAACP, 1900-1957. College Channel: Colorado A good&Yards College or university Press.

(2.) Herman Wright so you’re able to Mrs. Roy L. Arterbury, November 17, 1950; Harriet Dickson Reynolds to Wright, November 21, 1950, HPL Moments, v. 10, 1948-1950.

(step 3.) Harriet Dickson Reynolds to help you Herman W. Mead, November 24, 1950, HPL Minutes v. 10, 1948-1950; Board Participants see Mayor (undated typescript), HPL Times, v. eleven, 1951-1953.

(nine.) A glance at Jack Valenti, recovered , off Valenti satisfied Lyndon Baines Johnson during the 1955 and soon after offered less than President Johnson as his special secretary up to 1966, when he retired being head of one’s Flick Relationship out of America, a post he stored up to mid-2004.

(thirteen.) Harriet Dickson Reynolds to help you Usually Grams. Sears, June 2, 1953; Sears in order to Reynolds, July 21, 1953, HPL, Minutes v. 11, 1951-1953.

(15.) Times, Fulfilling out-of Board Participants, July 21 and you will December eleven, 1953, HPL Moments, v. 11, 1951-1953; HPL Annual Report 1953 (typescript).

(18.) Coloured Carnegie Part: Demolishment: Inquiries brought out in the Panel Conference out-of June a dozen, 1959, HPL Moments, v. 14, 1958-1960.

H. (1999)

(twenty-four.) Moments, Regular Conference off Board Professionals, March 23, 1962, 4; Times, Regular Conference out of Board Players, Oct thirteen, 1961, step three, HPL Moments, v. 15, 1961-1962.

Specific light moms and dads create target to help you particularly activities in the event that black youngsters took part, Reynolds told you

Cheryl Knott Malone try an associate teacher on University out of Information Information and you will Library Technology on College or university out-of Arizona, where she teaches recommendations literacy tuition, online looking, government recommendations source and rules, and other courses. As well as evaluating and you may speaking about the real history from libraries to own African get more People in the us on the segregated South, this woman is involved in a collective studies of one’s invention and you can effect from industrial group.

From inside the 1904 brand new Houston Lyceum and you will Carnegie Library had unwrapped downtown from inside the a recently constructed edifice financed because of the steel baron Andrew Carnegie. Within the 1913 the new Coloured Carnegie Collection open its the newest building nearby, once more financed by the patron that has produced millions during the metal. The fresh new Colored Carnegie Library run individually up to 1921, whether it became a branch of one’s recently rebranded Houston Societal Library (Malone, 1999). By 1953 the system integrated area of the library the downtown area, six twigs, a few brief put programs, and two bookmobiles, all of the to your exclusive entry to whites, together with Coloured Carnegie Department and you will about three deposit station in the good senior high school, an elementary university, and a playground for African Us citizens (Houston Societal Collection, 1958, p. 2).

To the election off Roy Yards. Hofheinz once the erican people started initially to change. Soon after providing office early in 1953, Hofheinz appointed Gould Beech, their manager secretary, in order to advise the fresh new library board. Beech visited the new board’s conference for the March, where in actuality the panel spoke that have your on tricks for raising the library’s budget. He then broached the subject of desegregation, inquiring panel players what they considered the possibility. Introduce had been panel people Arterbury, Mrs. A great. T. Carleton, and you can Carl F. Stuebing and you will librarian Reynolds, but their answers commonly submitted in the moments of meeting. (5)

Reynolds told the fresh new panel you to definitely she was worried about desegregating kid’s attributes. She pointed out that library service to help you college students on it a whole lot more compared to the reference and movement properties usually employed by adults. The fresh new collection considering students facts period, paid clubs, and you may fostered other group things that could be construed since which have a social component. Ergo, she recommended, the fresh new collection is to take a progressive approach to desegregated service from the increasing access to adults. Black adults could well be allowed to make use of the central library’s adult range and you will reading rooms. The new dialogue one followed touched on which the brand new board players watched given that related activities, eg if or not whites and you will blacks might be permitted to play with an equivalent lavatories, liquids fountains, and you may bar room. Board professionals experienced the term “adult.” The fresh new panel as well as discussed new management problems that you are going to arise due to the fact library group made an effort to manage constraints that used on a few of their customer base not anyone else. Board user Waldo Bernard went which they accept Reynolds’s testimonial in order to desegregate adult functions. But no one seconded this new action. Valenti went that the thing qualify from the a following conference, and everybody consented. (12)

Inspite of the changed rules on main library, the fresh new Colored Carnegie Part went on their factors, that have emphasis on services for the kids and you may teenagers. New branch librarian, Anita Sterling, visited five elementary colleges and another elder saturated in the woman operate so you’re able to notice young adults in using the library. She organized a studying pub getting youngsters, stored facts occasions for kids, and you can organized a variety of circumstances when you look at the observance regarding Guide Day. She plus filed columns and you can recommendations to help you regional push so you’re able to promote the branch. As the at the central collection, TSUN college students were apparently heavy profiles of your own branch’s stuff and you can services. (16)

In the the conference in the July off 1961, the fresh new board voted unanimously to close off new Colored Carnegie Part because the of July 29, without social statement. (22) Reynolds delivered an excellent memorandum in order to Gran Lewis Cutrer advising your out-of the reality that and you will listing your branch circulated a mere ten instructions every single day. She assured the mayor you to definitely a great bookmobile manage continue to visit predominately black colored neighborhoods for the a frequent agenda. After which she recognized the importance of brand new board’s operate. “With the closure of your Colored Carnegie Branch,” Reynolds blogged, “brand new library system is for everybody important motives integrated.” (23)