The “Negro Branch” Library in Memphis: A Case Study of Public Services in a Segregated Southern City

Memphis was a pioneer among southern cities in providing segregated library services to African Americans in 1903. However, those services were unequal to services offered to white citizens, and subject to political forces aimed at perpetuating white supremacy. By the 1930s African Americans had become a crucial voting bloc that supported the political machine of “Boss” Crump, who dominated city government between 1927 and 1954. Improved library service was one of many civic amenities that were provided in African American communities as part of an unstated bargain between the Crump machine and African American voters of Memphis. The library became one of many community-building institutions that helped a generation of African American leaders in Memphis prepare for the struggles of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.