In 2021, Dr. Sujatha Hampton started wondering what the segregation history was of the Fairfax County Public Library System. She was a local official with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and was on the board of the library system.
Her suggestions to explore the county’s history went to Chris Barbuschak and Suzanne S. LaPierre, both librarians with the system. They came up with a 100-page report for the library board. Then someone suggested they turn the report into a book. In January, they came out with “Desegregation in Northern Virginia Libraries” (History Press).
While the book deals with Northern Virginia, it also has worthwhile lessons for the rest of the state, including the Richmond area. During interviews with Style Weekly, the authors provided information about what happened with library integration in Richmond which shows just how confusing and contradictory the process of desegregation was.
Their deeply researched book came up with some curious findings. One was that Virginia’s public libraries were opened to Black people years, if not decades, before schools. Also, some of those still segregated into the 1950s and 1960s tended to include Northern Virginia despite its proximity to Washington, DC.
“Libraries were the first institution to be desegregated,” says LaPierre. It was a curious phenomenon since some state laws called for libraries to be opened for Black readers dating back to the 1940s. LaPierre believes “this was to throw a bone to keep schools segregated longer,” she says. “They desegregated to seem progressive.”
Even then, it was a muddle. In Petersburg in 1960, fifteen Black students from Virginia State College walked through the white entrance of the local public library and sat down in protest. Eleven were arrested for trespassing and eventually released. That same year, Black teenagers in Danville protested racial restrictions. The white-controlled library relented, but only so much. Black people were allowed to use the whites-only Confederate Memorial Library but only if they filled out a four-page application and provided two character references and two verifications of credit.
What about Richmond?
In the City of Richmond and at the Library of Virginia, half-measures seemed in order. According to research provided by LaPierre to Style Weekly, Richmond had a segregated branch for Black residents called the Rosa D. Bowser Branch, established in 1926. Bowser is regarded as one of the most significant Black educators of the 19th century and the library began at 514 N. Adams St., which was her residence.
In 1947, the Leigh Street YMCA Business and Professional Men’s Council petitioned the Richmond Public Library’s board of directors to allow people of all races to use the Central Library in downtown Richmond. The board minutes dated April 14, 1947 stated that “use of the Central Library by Negroes is not specifically prohibited except by inference … respecting the establishment of a colored branch.”
The board minutes go on to dictate that Black residents must register for library cards at the Bowser Branch and have their borrowing records in good standing before using the Central Library. Also the “resources of the Negro branch must also prove to be inadequate for the borrower’s reasonable need.”
These minutes note “two other practical barriers … all but one of the six lending stations are located in white public schools buildings” and “at the Central Library there can be little if any change made in the spaces and arrangement of the public lavatories.” In other words, according to LaPierre, schools and bathrooms were still segregated, restricting Black residents’ full use of the city’s library system.
The board meeting minutes from May 27, 1947 state that, “after June 1, 1947 any adult now recorded at the Bowser Branch as a borrower in good standing may obtain a Central Library card.” On May 28, 1947, the board voted unanimously to allow all races, although Black children under the age of 16 were not allowed due to limited bathroom facilities.
At the Library of Virginia, the state government’s main library on Broad Street (founded in 1823, it outgrew several locations in Capitol Square before moving to 800 East Broad St. in 1997), matters were unclear. LaPierre was told that officials have “been unable to find any information about when the state library was desegregated.” Barbsuschak said he spent a week of his summer vacation at the Library of Virginia doing statewide research on library integration.
In their book, LaPierre and Barbuschak also note that across the state, public libraries might have been wholly or partially desegregated but Black citizens sometimes weren’t properly informed about them.
Looking to expand project
In Northern Virginia, their research shows that some cities and counties didn’t get around to desegregating until the late 1950s or 1960s. That might seem strange given that region’s proximity to the nation’s capital. There, the city library system and the Library of Congress have been open to all races since they opened, although Southern congressmen reportedly complained about having to dine with Black people.
The ‘just-the-facts’ writing style of LaPierre and Barbuschak’s book can make it slow going at times. But the depth of their research is impressive. It often makes the reader take pause and think, “just how crazy was segregation?”
The authors say they have been thinking about expanding their work into other books. Their first one concentrated on Northern Virginia with small tidbits on places like Petersburg, Newport News and Danville. Note: Richmond is not covered in the first book, the information above was provided to Style Weekly as an aside.
One problem during the writing of the first book was not taking enough vacation time to research the work, the authors say. Looking ahead, they have an idea for a future book that would be written to educate young people. It would take a deeper dive into the research of library segregation statewide.
“We’re open to suggestions from anyone,” LaPierre adds. Also all proceeds from their current book are going to the N.A.A.C.P.
