1 / 12
The Greenville Public Library Association was formed in 1921 at the height of the Jim Crow era. The US Supreme Court’s infamous 1896 decision (Plessy v. Ferguson) which established a “separate but equal” doctrine, resulted in legislation that discriminated against people of color. Throughout the South, laws requiring segregation were passed, and separation of the races was the law in early twentieth century Greenville. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)
2 / 12
In the beginning, Greenville’s dual libraries were both housed in rented rooms in the downtown area. It was a boom time for the city. World War I had just ended, the city was witnessing growth in the great textile mills and their villages, streets were being paved, and an electric trolley system circled the town. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)
3 / 12
The library’s founders were progressive and very determined to spread literacy throughout the city and county. Accordingly, the Phillis Wheatley Center, formed in 1919 by local African American educator Hattie Logan Duckett, was chosen to house the first African American library in South Carolina. The two libraries, however, were not equal. (Image from the Elrod Collection, courtesy of the Greenville County Historical Society)
4 / 12
Greenville County was the home of the South’s first bookmobile, which served both white and African American schools & communities. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)
5 / 12
During World War II, the Greenville Army Airbase, later Donaldson Center, was built in the southern part of the county. Because the airbase was segregated, the USO for colored soldiers was housed at the Phillis Wheatley Center. The library presence there was severely curtailed; hours were slashed and materials reduced. (Image from the Coxe Collection, courtesy of the Greenville County Historical Society)
6 / 12
Because of the crowding and lack of materials, Greenville’s African American citizens demanded better service and their own library building. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)
7 / 12
In 1940, a former school building on Main Street was purchased for the library which was only to be used by people who were not African-American. By 1947, this library reported a collection of 55,508 books compared to 11,644 at Phillis Wheatley. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)
8 / 12
By the 1950s, the demand for a new library resulted in the establishment of a re-purposed commercial building on McBee Avenue. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)
9 / 12
In March and July of 1960, students staged a series of peaceful protests against the segregation of the libraries. In what might be called "read-ins," groups of young African Americans entered the white library and quietly used its resources, perusing shelves of books or sitting at tables reading. Two of these protests resulted in the arrest of the participants on charges of disturbing the peace. (Image from the James Wilson Photograph Collection, courtesy of the Upcountry History Museum)
10 / 12
On July 16, 1960, seven students from Sterling High along with college freshman, Jesse Jackson, entered the library and were arrested. This group became known as 'The Greenville 8'. (Image from the James Wilson Photograph Collection, courtesy of the Upcountry History Museum)
11 / 12
On July 29, 1960, a federal lawsuit was filed in response to the arrest of seven Sterling High students who had entered the library in March. This group became known as 'The Greenville 7'. (Images from the 1960 edition of the Sterling High School Yearbook “The Torch” courtesy of the Greenville Cultural Exchange Center)
12 / 12
The Main Street library was integrated in September of 1960 in response to the lawsuit. The McBee Branch library closed in 1965 and a new fully integrated library was opened in 1970 on College Street in an area which is known today as Heritage Green. (Image from the South Carolina Room Collection)
