1961 US Commission on Civil Rights Report Book 2 - University of ...

central library where the majority of the books are kept.
concluded: 4
He
Most librarians are unaware of the fact that most public libraries
below the Mason and Dixon Line are segregated [and] . . . nearly
10 million Negro citizens of our land are totally or partially denied
access to publicly owned books.
It was through Mr. Estes' efforts that the members of the American
Library Association, meeting in Chicago early in <strong>1961</strong>, adopted (by a
200 to i vote) a resolution declaring that "the rights of an individual
to the use of a library should not be denied or abridged because of his
race, religion, national origins, or political views." 5 A subsequent report
observes that public libraries in the South are still segregated to a
great extent. 6
CITY LIBRARIES
In 1959 it was reported that some 70 southern cities admitted Negroes
to full use of main public libraries. 7 On August 15, 1958 a suit was filed
for the desegregation of the public libraries in Memphis, Tennessee, 8 and
another was filed on May 23, 1960 for the desegregation of those in
Savannah, Georgia. 9 In the case of Memphis, the efforts of sit-in demonstrators
as well as the pending litigation brought about the voluntary
desegregation of the local libraries on October 13, ig6o. 8a
On March 21, 1960, in fact 36 Negroes were fined $25 each in the
Memphis City Court for staging a sit-down at the white public library,
and a Negro newspaper editor was fined $50 for inciting them. 10 A few
weeks later four additional Memphis Negro students were jailed for
refusing to comply with the request of a librarian and of the police to
leave a "white only" section of the downtown public library. 11 The
efforts of sit-in demonstrators in Jackson, Mississippi, however, have been
of no avail. In early April <strong>1961</strong>, nine Negro college students held Mississippi's
first sit-in demonstration at the Jackson public library and were
arrested. 12
Danville, Virginia's, public library was desegregated as the result of
both sit-in demonstrations and court action. Negroes previously had
been issued cards valid only at the Negro branch, but on occasion they
had been allowed to use the main library. On April 2, 1960, however,
after a dozen Negro high school students staged a brief sitdown at the
main municipal public library, it was closed. Two days later the city
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