By Garry Blanson
Please note that this is part one of a two-part series.
Way, way, way before “black citizens” in Monroe, Louisiana even had the money to acquire a building for a library, and when Negroes weren’t allowed entrance into the “white’s only” Ouachita Parish Public Library, in Monroe, “black people in Monroe and Ouachita Parish had a dream of having their own public library!”
Personally, if you ask me, the story about how the “Colored Chamber of Commerce” and Black Citizens of Monroe, Louisiana and Ouachita Parish came together to establish a public library for the Black Residents just isn’t discussed and talked about enough at the schools in our Black Communities in Monroe!
Well, thanks to a college student’s thesis that I found while doing my online research, I am now able to inform everyone of the “student’s account” on how the “Carver-McDonald Branch Library” came into existence!
Incidentally, the student who wrote the thesis name is, “Shirley Cross Russ.” Although, I found her thesis a couple of years ago at a total different website, Lora Peppers, a local Ouachita Parish Librarian, in Monroe, Louisiana has since included “a link” to Shirley’s thesis in her online series, “Ouachita Parish Tidbits.” Therefore, everyone can Google: Lora Peppers Ouachita Parish Tidbits Shirley Cross Russ, and access the entire thesis! Interestingly, Shirley also included how the “Whites Only” library was started too!
Well, as the story goes, in the late 1940s, the “white citizens” of Monroe and Ouachita Parish were successful in getting a local tax passed to support their “whites only” library.
While that was good for the “white people” living in Ouachita Parish, it was very discouraging to most of the “Negroes,” especially those who wanted to learn how to read!
Wow, then in 1946, a remarkable Negro Organization comes along that would leave an imprint on the Negro Community that would last for decades to come!
By the way, the group was headed by a local Black Pharmacist & Businessman, Raymond O. Pierce, who is also Dr. Ollibeth Reddix’s grandfather. Additionally, the group was known as “the Colored Chamber of Commerce.”
In her thesis, Shirley mentions that the group’s first action towards procuring a local library for Negroes in Ouachita Parish was to form a small committee, which included Mr. Raymond O. Pierce, Mr. Emmitt Davis, Mr. Pete Thompson, and Mr. Herman Marbles.
After one of their committee meetings, the committee requested a meeting with the librarian and the President of The Library of Control over the “white’s only” library in Monroe to discuss their desire to acquire a library for Negroes.
At the meeting, the members of the committee were essentially told “the same thing that Blacks in the Booker T. Community have been told for the past 3 years or so, about how the new Carver-McDonald Branch Library is next on their library expansion priority list!”
However, back in 1947, this wasn’t the biggest challenge the committee was presented with!
The bigger challenge was being told that “no funds” would be available from the Ouachita Parish Library to provide for a building for “this new Negro library,” and that the committee would have to come up with “the necessary funding to acquire a building to house the new library!”
Well, that’s all for this week’s article “about the story of the Carver-McDonald Library’s humble beginnings in Monroe!”
Hope everyone will return to learn more about how the “Colored Chamber of Commerce” was able to come up with a couple of “creative ways” of establishing a local library for Negroes in Monroe and Ouachita Parish back in the day!
