The Other Brown v. Board of Education

In 1928, long before the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision ended official segregation in education in the United States, Anderson H. Brown and a group of black residents sued the Charleston (West Virginia) Independent School District to allow blacks to use the former state capitol annex which had been purchased for use as the Charleston library. The suit, captioned as Brown v. Board of Education of the Charleston Independent School District, resulted from a decision to segregate the library which had previously been used by both races. The change in policy was directly related to the influence and money of one prominent white supporter, Albert E. Humphreys, and marked a switch in attitude toward the separation of the races in West Virginia's capital city.

The Charleston Public Library, now the main branch of the Kanawha County Public Library System, had been created in 1909 by the Woman's Kanawha Literary Club. This group, which had established a tradition of promoting literacy, recognized that, though Charleston occasionally had lending libraries promoted and run by book stores, there was no ongoing establishment in the city to allow ready, and free, access to books. The members of the literary club organized meetings to promote a library and recruited George S. Laidley, the superintendent of the Charleston Independent School District, to lead the effort to raise funds for a public library. After a year-long fund drive, the group opened a library in two rooms of the newly constructed YMCA in downtown Charleston. In addition, a trained librarian, Mabel Delle Jones, was employed to staff the library. Though she remained in her position only four years, Jones established a professional operation that was continued and improved upon by successive librarians to the present.¹

In its early years, the library grew as books were donated and the number of patrons increased. Members of both races used the library, apparently with no controversy, and both races supported the library. The biggest problems, in the library's infancy, were the inability to find a permanent home for the main collection and a lack of secure funding. The library depended on donations for its existence, even though it attempted to attach itself to the school district and to utilize its levying ability. State law did not provide for school districts to support public libraries until a 1911 law authorized them to levy taxes for that purpose. Upon passage of the law, the Charleston Independent School District levied a property tax on behalf of a library and funding for basic library services was assured. Even though it was dependent on the school district for most of its funding, the library was run by an independent board which included George S. Laidley, the superintendent of the school system, in its membership.²

Soon after receiving funding from the school district, library board members began to discuss building a permanent home for the library collection. There was talk but no action and instead, after two years in the YMCA, the library was asked to move to make way for new "Y" programs. The library moved to the Kanawha Presbyterian Church manse for a few months and then to the YWCA for about a year. Forced out once again, the library found quarters in a building on the corner of Kanawha Street (now Boulevard) and MacFarland Street where it would remain for seven years. In 1921, the library was asked to move from that facility to make way for a business that wanted the building, and the library moved to the former Red Cross building which was located on the river bank near what is now Haddad Park. During the seven years on MacFarland Street, the Charleston Independent School District and the taxpayers provided a level of funding sufficient to establish branches of the library on Charleston's West Side (Lincoln Branch, 1917) and on Shrewsbury Street (1919) in an area that was shared by both blacks and whites, but was predominately black. Both branches were used by white and black residents of Charleston, as was the main library.

The library board...