Welcome back to the story of the 1939 Alexandria Library Sit-In Demonstration and the fight to integrate Alexandria, Virginia’s library. Since the 85th anniversary of the protest is tomorrow, we wanted to publish today’s post a little early. (Missed Part I? Listen to it here).
In today’s episode, Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell and I pick up where we left off. In response to the protest, the Alexandria Library Board and the Alexandria City Council created a separate but unequal library for Black Alexandrians, the Robert H. Robinson Library. How unequal was the Robinson Library? When the Alexandria Library was built, it had 10,000 books. 7000 were new books, and 3000 books were valuable, rare books from the original subscription library. By contrast, the Robinson Library had 1500 books, the vast majority of which were hand-me-downs from the Alexandria Library or donated books that reflected the needs and interests of White Alexandrians. Very few books were new. The Robinson Library was a fraction of the physical size of the Alexandria Library, which in 1964 added an additional 14,600 sq. ft. The Robinson wasn’t enlarged until 1988 despite years of acknowledged overcrowding. The Alexandria Library was fully landscaped by the city’s garden club. The Robinson sat on bare ground. The Robinson’s librarian was paid $720 annually for full-time work. The Alexandria Library’s part-time cataloger and library assistant was paid $1,940 annually.
Obviously, the story was far from over. Samuel Tucker and his allies were not going to accept this state of affairs. Check out today’s episode to hear Dr. Mitchell-Powell discuss the Black community's reaction to the new segregated library, the slow process of desegregation of the city’s library facilities, and the legacy of the sit-in demonstration.
Listen to our conversation or read the transcript below (We recommend that you listen to Part I first).
Dr. Mitchell-Powell will be discussing the legacy of the 1939 Sit-In protest on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, at 6:30 pm at the Alexandria Library. The library has recently made additional spots available: https://alexlibraryva.org/event/11410770. The event will also be live-streamed so that anyone outside of Alexandria can listen in.
You can purchase Dr. Mitchell Powell’s book on Amazon or directly from the publisher.
Friendly note: I’m still a bit of a novice at podcasting, so you might have to adjust your audio. Your patience is appreciated.
Transcript
Scott Vierick
Hello and welcome to History's Confluences. I'm Scott Vierick, and today's episode is part two of our discussion about the 1939 Alexandria Library Sit-In Demonstration. Today's episode is a co-production with the Alexandria Historical Society, and I'm once again joined by my fellow Alexandria Historical Society board member and friend, Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell. When we ended the previous episode, the Alexandria City Council and Library Board, rather than acceding to Samuel Tucker's demands to integrate the library so that all Alexandrians could use its facilities, instead created a separate and unequal library branch, the Robinson Library. Today's episode picks up where we left off, charts the long road to library desegregation in Alexandria, and looks at some of the legacies of the 1939 protest.
Music
The Robert H. Robinson Library, which the city set up for Black Alexandrians in the aftermath of the 1939 Alexandria Library sit-in demonstration, was, as you describe in your book, a shining example of how big a lie separate but equal really was. Compared with the Alexandria Library, the Robinson Library had fewer books. It was a significantly smaller space. The books themselves were frequently secondhand. So, it was very much separate but unequal.
1:53
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Yes, that's correct.
1:55
Scott Vierick
One of the things your book does so well is it talks about the reactions among the Black community to the library. Just how some made the decision to use it. Some made the decision to never walk through that door. And, you know, we've emailed a little bit about how class factored into that and financial resources. So, can you sketch out just a little bit about the divided reactions among the community?
2:23
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Sure, sure. Some in the Black community were afraid of making waves. And so they steered clear of the entire episode. There were other Black accommodationists who we've discussed previously. And they went along with what the white establishment decided to do. But there were some Blacks who were thrilled about the fact that there was to be a Black library in Alexandria. While it's true, Blacks could travel to Washington DC to use the integrated libraries in Washington. The Library of Congress was an integrated facility, and the Public Library of Washington, DC, was an integrated facility. But that required the money and the time to get into the city, to take time off from work, which many Blacks could ill afford. And so for them, this Black library in Alexandria, albeit inferior, far inferior to the white library, was at least some source of connection to self-education, reading, and learning.
4:03
Scott Vierick
Now, even after the Robinson Library opens, Samuel Tucker is still trying to get a library card for the Alexandria Library. Can you talk a little bit about what happens and what response the library gives him?
4:18
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
He attempted to apply for a library card and was told that he would be granted a card but that it would only be usable in the Black Library. At which point, he wrote a very stern letter, full of legalese, to Katharine Scoggin, the librarian, and to the city manager, saying, “that is not the library for which I made application, and I will not accept a card to a library that I did not intend to use.” He was absolutely furious about the entire situation.
5:11
Scott Vierick
Absolutely.
I want to talk a little bit about the path to the ultimate desegregation of the Alexandria Library. Obviously, the creation of the Robinson Library was an effort by the city government and the library board to try and avoid desegregation. But ultimately, it did, in fact, happen.
5:29
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
There were actually sequences of events that led to the library's ultimate desegregation. In 1950, a pair of landmark legal decisions, Sweatt versus Painter and McLaurin versus Oklahoma, that ended the separate but equal doctrine in graduate and professional education for Blacks. In 1954, In Brown v. the Board of Education outlawed separate but equal. In 1956, in response to the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Harry F. Byrd Sr….
6:23
Scott Vierick
Who was the head of the powerful Byrd machine that dominated Virginia politics at the time,
6:28
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Yes, that's correct, and he called for massive resistance to public school education. Just two years later, in 1958, school funding was withheld from Virginia communities that desegregated. Many Virginia schools chose to close rather than desegregate. However, white students receive state and county tuition grants and tax credits to attend private schools. No such arrangements were made for Black students, and many lost as much as five years of formal education. In 1959, Virginia's school closing law was ruled unconstitutional. The General Assembly made the operation of public schools optional as a response. Previously, public school education was mandated. Some schools desegregated because they wanted to remain open. But many chose to close rather than desegregate.
So, 1959 was a watershed year. That year, District Judge Albert Bryan ordered the city school board to admit nine Black students to three schools. all white schools in Alexandria. Presumably, these were high school students. John Albom, in 1965, who was the city's new school board superintendent,
ordered the closure of Parker Gray High School, the Black high school, just as T.C. Williams High School was being opened. It had been under construction. A few years later, 1971 to be specific, Albom further ordered that George Washington High School and Hammond High School, which were all white, be closed. And those students transferred to T.C. Williams High School. So, it wasn't a willing process. So one can't say that the schools were integrated. They were desegregated because courts were involved. Integrated and desegregated are often confused, but they are distinct terms for distinct courses of action.
Not to be put off, the library board decided that it would desegregate the Alexandria Library for
Black adults and Black teenagers over the age of 16. Black students younger than 16 still had to attend segregated schools and use the segregated facilities in the city. But there was no court action demanding that the library do so. But they realized, since so much pressure had been brought to bear on the school system, that they weren't far behind.
10:28
Scott Vierick
And that's why you use “desegregation” for the library.
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Exactly.
Scott Vierick
So even though there was not a court order saying, “Alexandria, your library needs to desegregate,” they saw the writing on the wall with the schools and adjusted accordingly.
10:42
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Exactly.
10:45
Scott Vierick
So, from 1959 to 1962, you see the Alexandria Library system, as you described, gradually desegregating. And that process was completed by 1962. Given all the time and effort he put into trying to make the Alexandria Library open to everyone, do we have any documentation for how Samuel Tucker reacted to the slow desegregation of the Alexandria Library, and if he participated in that in any way?
11:23
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Evidently, Tucker discussed legal issues like this with the adult members of his family. I was unable to obtain any primary sources that attested to Samuel Tucker's personal reaction to the case. But I imagine, once again, he was furious that it took so long for desegregation to occur.
11:58
Scott Vierick
So, I want to talk, there's a lot of legacies to talk about here. So I want to start off with the legacy of the Robinson Library. The Alexandria Library is today just one of many branches in the Alexandria Library system. It is the Barrett Branch Library, as I said earlier, that's where we're sitting right now, where the protest happened. The Robinson Library, the building is still there, it's just not a library. So can you tell our listeners the story of what was next for the Robinson Library?
12:30
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
The Black Library, after full integration and desegregation of the Alexandria Library took place, became the bookmobile headquarters for the city's citizens. And this was particularly good for serving citizens, Black and white, who lived on the outskirts of the city and had no easy access to the library facilities.
Later, in 1969, the bookmobile services were discontinued under the tenure of Ellen Coolidge Burke, who was then the director of all of Alexandria's libraries. The library was closed for a short time, but then reopened as the Alexandria Black History Resource Center. That functioned for a time, and in 1988, after years of, I hate to say it this way, but I suppose there's no other way to say it, seemingly benign neglect, the Robinson Library underwent total remodeling. So 1988 was a big moment. It was a pivotal moment. And the library was reopened.
14:13
Scott Vierick
As the Alexandria Black History Museum?
14:16
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Alexandria Black History Museum.
14:19
Scott Vierick
And the Alexandria Black History Museum remains in that location, and it remains open to the public today.
So, I want to pivot to the legacies of the sit-in protest. This was something that happened years before many of the more well-known protests and sit-in demonstrations of the civil rights era. What did your research uncover in terms of its legacy in informing and inspiring future leaders in the civil rights movement?
14:52
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Well, because there were such sparse records, legal records on the sit-in, there was no direct evidence that the sit-in case inspired other sit-in protests. However, there is strong circumstantial evidence that a sit-in protest in another Virginia city took place a few decades later that used Samuel Tucker's premises for civil disobedience and non-violent social activism.
But the biggest significance, probably most important thing, was that it provoked a public crisis of authority in an institution that epitomized the ideals whites reserved for themselves and denied Blacks, literacy, education, culture, and power. The sit-in is also significant because it marked the first time in sit-in history, recorded civil rights history, that a challenge was launched directly against the issue of segregation. Previous demonstrations, as I've mentioned earlier, took the form of boycotts and pickets, but they were only for increased or improved service treatments and did not involve a confrontation with segregation directly, as the sit-in did.
16:58
Scott Vierick
So, tell me what happened with Samuel Tucker. What did the rest of his life look like?
17:04
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Samuel Tucker left Alexandria in the late 40s and moved to Emporia, Virginia, where he and a former colleague set up a practice focused on school desegregation. And he spent the remainder of his life fighting cases of school desegregation and argued several of them in front of the Supreme Court. So he became a well-known and established figure in terms of the court system, the civil rights protests.
17:58
Scott Vierick
One of the ways that today the city pays tribute is Samuel Tucker Elementary School is named after him.
18:04
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
That's correct. And it was the first school the city of Alexandria built in 30 years.
18:15
Scott Vierick
Absolutely. What can you tell me about the other members of the protest and what happened to them?
18:20
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Otto Tucker seems to be the only protester who continued a legacy of social and civil activism. He too followed in Samuel's footsteps and went to Armstrong High School, followed by baccalaureate education at Howard University. The same year he left the university, he opened a practice with his father and Tom Watson, the lawyer who had appealed the Tucker family children's railroad car conviction. In addition to his private practice, Otto accepted a position in Milwaukee where he directed a program that provided legal services to the poor and he provided similar services in Montreal. He returned to Alexandria when his health began to fail and died in 1988 at the age of 71.
Unfortunately, that's the most in-depth record we have of the activities of the protesters subsequent to the protest. Clarence and Robert Strange were employed by Alexandria Hospital.
By 1942, Clarence no longer lived in Alexandria and is presumed to have begun his military service. Clarence returned to the city in 1947 and became a federal employee. In 1942, Robert Strange worked at the community drugstore. By 1945, he was no longer living in Alexandria. But by 1947, he was back and enrolled in school in Alexandria.
Reportedly, Clarence and Robert Strange were involved in another civil rights demonstration. But I was able to find no evidence, no primary source evidence anyway, to justify that presumption. It may exist but I wasn't able to find it in any of the records. And secondary records don't recount that incident either.
After the sit-in, Edward Gaddis was working for Alexandria Hospital. By 1942, he too was no longer living in Alexandria and had entered the military.
In 1936, before the sit-in, Morris Murray was already working as a printer, and by 1940, he was employed as a linotype operator. He joined the Army in 1942 and, in 1947, was no longer living in Alexandria.
William Evans was still in high school at the time of the sit-in. In a 1990 article in the Alexandria Journal, he recalled that it was difficult for Blacks to get good jobs after high school.
He wanted an administrative position with a high salary and a big office and a secretary and all of that, which was not forthcoming. Not yet. So he claims, this is William Evans, that the best jobs available to Blacks were as clerks and messengers. He joined the Army and as part of his service,
became part of the Army Special Service Division, and he traveled to Italy, France, Africa, and Germany, arranging entertainment for the troops. After the interview, Evans was 69 years old and still living in Alexandria. He was the only protester still alive at that time.
22:55
Scott Vierick
There's a coda to the legal story as well. Of course, in the 1930s, the judge did not issue a decision, but in recent years, the city updated the case.
23:06
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
In 2019 Alexandria's Commonwealth Attorney established a court case to exonerate the protesters for their activities during the sit-in demonstration. The case was found in their favor.
23:28
Scott Vierick
Brenda, talk to me a little bit about how you first came across this story and how you decided that you were going to spend years researching it, fleshing it out, and correcting some of the misconceptions about it.
23:41
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Well, Black history is one of my passions. And so, I was ripe for a cause to research and develop. In 2009, I was looking for property here in Alexandria to be a second home for my husband and myself when we retired. Alexandria kept coming up on the list of possible places to live because of its amenities and its proximity to the District of Columbia and the fact too that we could get more bang for our buck if we purchased property on the outskirts of the district rather than finding property directly in the district. So a couple of communities continue to rise to the top. McLean was one. Alexandria was one.
But Alexandria especially piqued my interest. In searching demographics, history, and courses of action in Alexandria for historical references, I came across a mention on the Alexandria Black History Museum's website that referred to the sit-in protest of 1939. Then my curiosity was really piqued. In spite of my library history education, in spite of my education in Black studies, I had never heard and never encountered any mention of this particular sit-in demonstration.
I was actually kind of angry because I would have expected the Black library community or the Black history community to have recorded this significant event. But no one did. No one ever did. And so I decided to change all that.
So essentially, my dissertation topic and my residence found me. So Alexandria became that second home, which only a year later became our primary home when my husband decided to retire early.
26:17
Scott Vierick
I'd be curious to hear about, you know, a little bit more about your research process. So, this book started off as a dissertation…
26:24
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Right.
26:24
Scott Vierick
What were the sources and collections you found the most valuable?
26:28
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Well, I did my primary research here at the Barrett Library in their local history and special collections division. I also conducted research during my doctoral dissertation at the Alexandria Black History Museum. They had a few things, and the few things that they had were very valuable, but there wasn't that much information, certainly not enough to feed a dissertation. So, I meandered my way over to the Barrett Library, as it was then called, to local history and special collections, and found this to be the richest source of information on the sit-in demonstration, on Tucker, on Booth, on the Robinson Library, on the library board's meeting records, their meeting notes are fascinating. There is much that has not been discussed publicly. But I also visited archives at the University of Virginia, the Commonwealth University, and two other archives.
27:54
Scott Vierick
And one of the cool things about Special Collections in Barrett is you're literally in the building where the protest happened. And the building has since received a number of interior renovations. So we're not exactly sure where the desks were, where the men were sitting.
But was that something that ever struck you as you were doing research that you're literally looking at these documents in the building where the protest happened?
28:19
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Yes, it did. Several times, as a matter of fact, I'd come across documents that would raise the hairs on my neck. One thing in particular, the letter, we discussed this earlier in the podcast, but the letter that Samuel Tucker wrote to the librarian and the city manager, telling them that he was refusing the card they were willing to give him to be admitted to the Robinson Library. But he had to wait until it was constructed.
He said, I did not make application for admission to the Robinson Library and that is not the library I want to use. And there were other Black Alexandrians who felt the same way that he did.
29:24
Scott Vierick
And you also did a number of oral histories as well, meeting with longtime residents of the community who remembered the sit-in protest. And I'd love to hear a little bit more about how you found people and what those conversations were like.
29:39
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
That was a really fascinating part of the work. At that point, my dissertation was morphing into a book. and I was looking for additional resources and additional sources of reference. It seemed to me that there were abundant resources for the white establishment, the White Library Board, the White City Council in local history and special collections but missing from the story of the sit-in were the voices of Black Alexandrians. So I made a point of speaking to people connected with officials that provided me with names of individuals that I might be interested in interviewing. Those individuals put me on to other names that became other connections to additional interviewees.
And it was a fascinating process. It really was. I loved hearing about Alexandria in the 1930s and 1940s. It was a typical segregated city. But it was not as racist, not to say that it wasn't racist, but it was not as racist as communities further south in Virginia.
31:23
Scott Vierick
A fascinating story, and, again, all told wonderfully in your book. Again, the book is Public in Name Only, the 1939 Alexandria Library Sit-In. And it can be purchased wherever books are sold or checked out from your local library. If you're in Alexandria, the city is going to be doing a number of events in August to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the library sit-in. And you can learn about it, there's plenty of resources online about it, thanks in part to scholars like Brenda.
So again, I just want to thank you, Brenda, for sitting down and talking to me about this story relevant both to Alexandria and the country. Thank you for all the research you've done and for talking to me about it today. And I also want to thank the Alexandria Historical Society for co-sponsoring this and the Alexandria Library for letting us meet here in the building where it happened. Not every day you get to do that.
32:19
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Well, I thank you, Scott. It has been such a pleasure working with you, not just on this podcast, but on other things. But I'm particularly grateful for your willingness to give the sit-in additional coverage. It's a national story, not just a local history story. And one of my aims is to make that happen, to present the story as something that is seen in the wider world and not just in the city of Alexandria. And I too am grateful for our sponsors, their willingness to accommodate us, and as you said, Scott, there are going to be activities in August to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the sit-in demonstration. I will be speaking on the sit-in and on connections of the sit-in to contemporary events that essentially echo events from the years of the sit-in.
33:28
Scott Vierick
And what day is that going to be?
33:30
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
That's going to be on August 21st. I am not yet sure where it is going to be held, but you can get that information from any of the local libraries as of August.
33:45
Scott Vierick
And we'll update the show notes once we have that information.
33:48
Dr. Brenda Mitchell-Powell
Thank you, Scott.
33:50
Scott Vierick
Thank you, Brenda. I think that's a wonderful note to end it on.
Music
