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

Recently, Danville lost a new plant important to its growing economy;
the closed library is considered a factor in why the industry
chose to locate elsewhere. City councilman Charles A. Womack
cited the loss of the plant when he and four other Council members
voted to reopen the libraries on a go-day trial basis.
The Library Journal also had something to say about the extraordinary
library card fee and the references required for application. The article
concluded with the following comment: 28
. . . [Tjhose who voted for the reopening did so for what is, in our
opinion, a wrong reason. Expediency rather than a belief in
human rights and equality of opportunity appeared to govern their
actions. And although the libraries are now open the battle is far
from over. ...
The go-day compromise is due to end on December 11. We shall
look forward with keen anticipation to the outcome, and hope
that a further step into the dark ages will not be taken.
At the conclusion of the trial period the Danville public libraries were
finally reopened on a more liberal basis—with single tables and chairs
"well spread out" in the reading room to permit sit-down, instead of
vertical, browsing. 24
Six months later the Danville library service was "gradually returning
to normalcy" but with only about two-thirds of its former patronage.
Membership at the white and Negro branches in early June <strong>1961</strong> was
about 6,000 as compared with the earlier combined enrollment of
10,000. Only a small number of Negroes have applied for cards at
the formerly all-white main library. 25
After the desegregation of Danville's library, Petersburg, located in
Virginia's Black Belt, was the only Virginia city of any size maintaining
segregated public library facilities. 28 Petersburg's city library experienced
its first sit-down demonstration on February 27, 1960. A few days
later the City Council enacted an ordinance forbidding trespass on
property owned or operated by the city under penalty of a year in jail
and $1,000 fine. 27 On March 7, 11 students tested the law by entering
the white section of the library, were arrested and subsequently convicted.
Appeal was filed and simultaneously a suit was brought in a
Federal court seeking an end to the Petersburg library's segregation. 28
City officials claimed that the library was segregated because the
woman who gave the property to the city in 1923 so stipulated in the
deed. The city argued that if the conditions of the deed were not fulfilled,
title to the property would revert to the estate. (The donor's
heir and only surviving daughter contended that her mother did not
intend for the city to operate a segregated library. 29 ) Then on July 6,
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