The Importance of Literacy to the Civil Rights Movement. Shane Hand, PhD Student, US History University of Southern Mississippi

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1 The Importance of Literacy to the Civil Rights Movement Shane Hand, PhD Student, US History University of Southern Mississippi

My research focuses on how public librarians facilitated the

2 My name is Shane Hand, and I am a PhD student in US History at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg. My research focuses on how public librarians facilitated the transmission of racist thinking in the US South during the early twentieth century.

3 Minimal text used in PowerPoint A word on terminology - black vs. African-American community - black community and black Americans - white community and white Americans - library as a contested space Questions during presentations

4 I would like to know a little something about the audience before we start:

5 I would like to know a little something about the audience before start, so: Please select the appropriate feedback icon to your left, if you are a: A. College students B. University faculty C. Participant from the community

6 I would like to know a little something about the audience before start: - College students - University faculty - Participant from the community Please respond to Question One in the chat box: 1. When was the first public library established in the United States?

7 I would like to know a little something about the audience before start: - College students - University faculty - Participant from the community Please respond to Question Two in the chat box: 1. When did public libraries emerge in the history of the United States? In the South? 2. When did black Americans begin receiving library services in the South?

8 Black Americans have long recognized literacy as fundamental to success. Frederick Douglass Booker T. Washington W.E.B. Du Bois

9 The white South has also recognized the importance of literacy. The slaveholders: - white literacy - slave codes Post-Reconstruction, Redemption, and the Black Codes.

single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil, and social;

10 Literacy fundamental from the start The Niagara Movement, Niagara Falls, Ontario, 1905 With schools came libraries Funding Purpose: We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil, and social; and, until we get those rights we will never cease to protest and assail the ears of America.

Boston, 1854-1858 In the North - 1854, Boston Public Library - 1870s, Dewey,

11 Boston, In the North , Boston Public Library s, Dewey, and Carnegie - Let there be light In the South - Slower start , Atlanta

12 Defining whiteness Demanding equality

13 Free information Influences general betterment - Thomas Fountain Blue, Louisville Colored Library (opened 1905) Makes better citizens - George T. Settle, ALA Annual Conference (1923) A hallowed place - US Supreme Court (1965) The American Librarian Association (ALA) works to increase public awareness of the crucial value of librarians and libraries. - ALA Office for Library Advocacy (2013)

14 Excuses offered by white politicians: - black community too illiterate, or - incapable of raising funds - lack of leadership - segregation, and - preferences of white to not touch elbows with colored folk

15 1903: - Memphis, TN 1904: - Galveston, TX 1905: - Lexington & Louisville, KY - Charlotte, NC : - Savannah, GA 1909: - Houston, TX 1910: - Fulton County, KY - Meridian, MS 1913: - Jacksonville, FL 1916: - Nashville, TN 1918: - Knoxville, TN - Birmingham, AL Montgomery, AL, however, went without library service for the black community until 1948.

16 Building D, New Orleans (1915) Building M, New Orleans (1915) Question: Which of the two buildings served as New Orleans segregated branch for the black community: Building D, or Building M?

17 Dryades Branch, New Orleans (1915) Main Branch, New Orleans (1915) The Answer: Building D. The actual name was the Dryades Branch, which opened in October of 1915 with Carnegie funds.

18 Librarian historian David M. Battles: in The History of Public Library Access for African Americans in the South: Or, Leaving Behind the Plow Who drove reform? White librarians were among the first southerners to meaningfully debate the merits of integration (143). Who proved least influential? African Americans in the South (140) Not so fast

Houston, TX - $1,500 raised by colored citizens (44) Birmingham, AL (1914 1918) - community raised $4,000 in 4 years (50) Alexandra, VA

20 Houston, TX - $1,500 raised by colored citizens (44) Birmingham, AL ( ) - community raised $4,000 in 4 years (50) Alexandra, VA (1939) - repeated requests and a sit-in (2) Atlanta, GA (1941) - seven year protest Mobile, AL (1961) - two days of staged protests (120)

21 Library service to Negroes had become a delicate subject, and the ALA did not welcome it - ALA member, Reinette Jones (1923, p56) Who is stuffing these Negroes down our throats? -William Stanley Hoole, AL Library Association executive council (1951) Forced to integrate, Montgomery removed all of its chairs - (1962, p126) In Mobile, the library director advised that their segregated branch must be kept attractive if we are to keep Negroes from coming to the main library - Arless B. Nixon, library director (1952, p105)

22 To stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires. - W.E.B. Dubois In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

23 Freedom Summer volunteers taught basic literacy to Mississippi s black community. Volunteers hoped to arm black Americans with the knowledge of their right to vote.

24 Learning from the past. Can t change the past, but we can change tomorrow.

NSTC COMPETITIVE AREA DEFINITIONS. UIC Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), Great Lakes, IL

NSTC COMPETITIVE AREA DEFINITIONS UIC 00210 Naval Service Training Command (NSTC), Great Lakes, IL UIC 00210 NSTC, N8, Pensacola, FL UIC 0763A Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, IL NSTC Pensacola Programs,