By Garry Blanson
At the end of my last ORBH article, the members of “The Colored Chamber of Commerce Committee” had just been informed that they would have to come up with “the entire amount of money for a building to house a library that would serve the Negro communities in Monroe!” Interestingly enough, the members didn’t let this financial obstacle interfere with their dream. For they knew that even though the strategy had now changed, “their dream of acquiring a physical building to house the new Negro library had not!”
Although the months that passed after their meeting with the president of the Ouachita Parish Library of Control seemed like years, the committee still hadn’t raised enough money to purchase a building for the “new Negro library”! However, towards the end of 1948, the Committee was successful in getting the Ouachita Parish Library Board of Control to agree to make arrangements with the Monroe City School Board, “whereby a temporary space for the new Negro library” was to be set up on the grounds of “Monroe Colored High School,” in Monroe, with the Ouachita Parish Library Board of Control agreeing to “pay the MCSB 505 dollars” to rent the space at Monroe Colored High School for one full year.
In the meantime, the Committee, along with the Negro Citizens of Monroe and Ouachita Parish, continued their fundraising efforts to secure a building. Additionally, while everything else was going on, the Ouachita Parish Police Jury agreed to donate a parcel of land that was “located at the corner of Adams Street & North 10th Street, in Monroe.”
Well, out of the blue, in May of 1949, Raymond O. Pierce received information about an old U.S. Army Air Force Base Barrack’s building about to be auctioned off at Selma Fields, in Monroe. Next, Mr. Pierce then informs the Ouachita Parish Librarian, who then notifies a member of the Ouachita Parish Police Jury!
Together, the Ouachita Parish Librarian and the member of the Ouachita Parish Police Jury attend the auction and purchase the old barracks building for the sum of “55 dollars,” with the distinct understanding that the “money used to purchase the barracks was a loan to the Colored Chamber of Commerce!”
Incidentally, there were several prominent Negroes who were instrumental in helping to raise funds for the “new Negro library,” such as Joseph Miller of Miller’s Funeral Home; Mrs. Rebecca Bose, a schoolteacher; and Mr. Eluen Hosten, a Negro store owner.
Additionally, other contributors, including Negro churches, ministers, beauticians, business store owners, community groups, social organizations, and some white organizations, even contributed funds for acquiring the “new Negro library” as well!
Finally, as the old saying goes, “The rest is Black History!”
In closing, it is my hope that my ORBH ARTICLES about The Humble Beginnings of The Carver-McDonald Ouachita Parish Branch Library will inspire others citizens in Monroe, Ouachita Parish, and especially the Black Citizens in “The Booker T. Washington Community” to show up at the Ouachita Parish Police Jury Meetings & at the Ouachita Parish Library Meetings and help “the dream of a new Carver-McDonald Branch Library, at 700 Rogers Street, near Carroll High School, become a reality, just as the Colored Chamber of Commerce Committee made the first Carver Library become a reality in Monroe, Louisiana, back in the late 1940s!”
