The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South b... - 9780807168677

The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow SouthCivil Rights and Local Activism\nAuthor(s): Shirley A. Wiegand, Wayne A. Wiegand\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Louisiana State University Press, United States\nImprint: Louisiana State University Press\nISBN-13: 9780807168677, 978-0807168677\nSynopsis\nIn The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South, Wayne A. and Shirley A. Wiegand tell the comprehensive story of the integration of southern public libraries. As in other efforts to integrate civic institutions in the 1950s and 1960s, the determination of local activists won the battle against segregation in libraries. In particular, the willingness of young black community members to take part in organized protests and direct actions ensured that local libraries would become genuinely free to all citizens.\n\nThe Wiegands trace the struggle for equal access to the years before the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, when black activists in the .