First black library proved popular

ST. PETERSBURG -- At the James Weldon Johnson Branch Library on 18th Avenue S recently, a crowd of African-American adults and children scanned books and typed away at computers.

"This is an excellent resource center," said patron Don Ford, 43. "The information and job preparation here is outstanding."

Libraries, however, weren't always kind to African-Americans.

About 80 years ago, the St. Petersburg Public Library banned African-Americans from its main sections. Not until the Johnson branch opened in 1947 did African-American residents have a library.

More recently, the Johnson branch has befriended Head Start and other children's services. It has conducted summer reading programs and coordinated activities with the Enoch Davis Center. It will soon expand to house an additional 10,000 volumes.

"The library is like an icon," said Mary Gaines, a former Johnson branch librarian and now Pinellas County's branch coordinator. "It represents history. It was the first library African-Americans could identify with."

In the 1920s, segregation was an everyday fact of life in St. Petersburg. Green benches were off limits to African-Americans. Most restaurants turned them away.

The St. Petersburg Library at Mirror Lake restricted African-Americans to its basement. An ill-equipped Davis Elementary and a near-empty reading room at Campbell Park left African-Americans with little means to enrich themselves.

"People are uncomfortable with libraries anyway, overwhelmed with information," said Paula Ivory, the Johnson branch's librarian. "Combine that with the feeling that you weren't wanted."

On March 5, 1945, a committee met with then-City Manager Carleton Sharpe to establish an African-American library. The committee -- a mix of whites and African-Americans driven by Mrs. S.M. Carter, a pastor's wife -- met with the press and repeatedly with Sharpe.

"Mrs. Carter was the guiding light for the project, and her determination to get a library was influential in the city's action," Pamela Peterson, former Johnson branch librarian, noted in a 1998 memo.

A $3,500 appropriation enabled the library to open April 1, 1947, inside an African-American Masonic lodge leased to the city for $50 monthly. The library occupied a 1,025-square-foot room and held 1,066 volumes at 1035 Third Ave. S. It was named after Florida native James Weldon Johnson, an African-American poet and author.

Lessie Burke was the facility's first librarian. Helen Edwards, who ran the library for more than three decades, replaced Burke in 1950.

Edwards established book reviews and children's story hours. At one point, the collection expanded to 2,789 volumes, and there were 1,821 registered patrons. "On the evenings it was open, there was standing room only with 65 to 70 people," noted Peterson's memo.

During the Gas Plant area redevelopment in 1979, the library closed. It reopened inside the Enoch Davis Center at 1111 18th Ave. S on Oct. 6, 1981. With Edwards as librarian, the Johnson branch boasted the largest African-American collection in Florida.

Edwards retired in 1984 and was succeeded by Mamie Doyle Brown. "(Edwards) left behind a legacy that endures to this day, and inspired many children who used the library," Peterson wrote.

As interim librarian in 1990, Gaines reorganized the facility's volumes. She also isolated the African-American section before Peterson's appointment as librarian the next year.

"It took six months to organize the black titles," said Gaines, 55, who also worked at the North Branch Library at the time and was then the only African-American librarian here. "The kids (ages 6 to 11) helped out."

Rumors abounded in 1990 that the city was going to slash funding and close the library. In response, activist Kevin Johnson organized the James Weldon Johnson Friends of the Library Inc. and circulated petitions to save the facility.

"I was on street corners, in churches and on the phone four to five hours a day after work," said Johnson, 46, no relation to the library's namesake who was born in 1871. "The young in the community did so much to help. We had 1,500 people sign the petition."

Ernie L. Coney, current president of the Friends of the Library, said: "Johnson almost single-handedly got everyone involved. The city realized we weren't going to stand by and lose our library."

Johnson said the triumph was a catalyst for the library system, because it forced city officials to closely monitor budgets.

About 1990, the Enoch Davis Expansion Task Force was established. It would "develop and enact a plan of expansion of the current physical structure so that the building will have functional structural integrity," noted its mission statement.

The task force's dream will materialize this summer, when a new 14,500-square-foot James Weldon Johnson Branch Library will open and house about 40,000 volumes. The $2.7-million facility will neighbor the Enoch Davis Center and feature a computer center and meeting, study, story hour and conference rooms.

"The new library is an accomplishment," Johnson said. "It's continuing a great legacy. It makes me feel that what I did was worth it. The community needs to pat themselves on the back."

-- Scott Taylor Hartzell can be reached at hartzel@msn.com.

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