The 1939 Alexandria Library Sit-In
Becoming the trademark tactic of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the first sit-in occurred well before the era of social unrest that would characterize the decade of the 1960s. Prior to the famous Woolworth counter sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina, five courageous African-American youths staged the first deliberate and planned sit-in at the Alexandria “public” Library in 1939.
Located on the site of a Quaker burial ground, on a half-acre of land, the construction of Alexandria’s first public and “free” library was completed in 1937. Prior to 1937, the Alexandria Library Company operated a subscription service throughout various locations in the city. The Alexandria Library (also known as the Queen Street Library) would later become known as the Kate Waller Barret Branch Library after the mother of the benefactor of construction funds for the building.
Located in the center of Alexandria’s African-American community, the Robert Robinson Library was completed in 1940 to serve as the colored branch of the Alexandria Library in response to the 1939 sit-in. The era of legalized segregated public accommodations had been ushered in by the 1896 landmark case of Plessy vs. Ferguson, which stipulated that “separate but equal” accommodations were constitutional under the law. Thereafter, the Jim Crow system of segregation dictated the daily lives of African-Americans whereby the facilities they encountered were indeed separate, but substantially inadequate to ever be characterized as equal.
Courtesy of Alexandria Library, Special Collections
Courtesy of Alexandria Black History Museum
 Introduction Getting Started: Inquiry Questions Determining the Facts: Readings
Visual Evidence: Images
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