Jim Crow & Southern Libraries: The Story of the Gainsboro Branch Library

In the early twentieth century, public libraries began to spread throughout the United States. However, in the South, Jim Crow laws denied African Americans access to public library facilities. While the work of activists did not succeed in integrating public libraries, it did bring funding for African American library branch facilities. The first freestanding public library for and operated by African Americans in Virginia opened in 1921 in Norfolk. The second, in that same year, was in Roanoke. This talk by branch manager Megan Mizak will explore the rich history of the Commonwealth’s second library for African Americans, the Gainsboro Branch Library, from its founding by important community leaders through the tenure of its most beloved librarian, Virginia Y. Lee.