| Like other southern institutions, public libraries in the South were segregated before the 1960s. Library exclusions affected millions of African Americans and undermined intellectual freedom in American libraries more than any other threat during the twentieth century. Segregation and the southern public library movement were both part of the New South's modernization process at the turn of the century. Segregation provided a framework within which progressive Southerners could build libraries while maintaining white supremacy. White library supporters in Alabama lent their support to separate black libraries, but these facilities were invariably inferior to the ones for whites. During the Depression, the Julius Rosenwald Fund established a County Library Demonstration in Walker County, Alabama, which, though segregated, provided a more equitable distribution of library resources among the races. The federal library programs of the New Deal did not follow the Rosenwald Fund's example, however; they acquiesced to local racial customs and often did not include black library service in their plans. Creating their own public library movement, African-American civic and religious organizations, educators, clergy, business leaders, and librarians worked within the prevailing social order to provide library service for their race. Blacks turned their attention toward integrating public libraries during the 1960s, staging sit-in demonstrations and filing desegregation suits in the federal courts. They desired access to their local cultural and educational resources, and they recognized that segregated public libraries were symbols of the American racial dilemma. White reactions varied among Alabama cities; some integrated their libraries quietly, and others became scenes of Klan activity and violence. Active opposition to library segregation by librarians in Alabama was rare. They were largely apolitical racial moderates who led their libraries toward integration when it seemed to be in the best interests of the institutions they served. |
