Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-7948-804X

Document Type

Paper

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

In 1929 the Julius Rosenwald Fund instituted its County Demonstration Library program of matching grants to promote public library service to Blacks in the South. By the end of the program, total circulation in the demonstration counties averaged 5.2 per capita, with circulation among Blacks more than twice what it had been the previous year. One such segregated library system was established in Webster Parish Louisiana with the support of the State Library Commission. The central white library and eight branches opened on October 4, 1929. The central Black library and four branches opened a short time later. The Library Commission donated 1,576 books for the white library and 532 for the Black. This increased to a total of 7700 by the end of the year. By 1930, the system included eleven white branches and nine Black branches. This paper critically analyzes the history of the establishment of the Demonstration Library, its collections, its users and uses, and its short- and long-term impact on public library service to the Black citizens of the state

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