Greenville County Library

From the 1940’s through the 1970’s, this was the home of the main branch of the Greenville County Library in the old Park School building. Although all that can be seen today is a parking lot, if you scroll through the pictures you will see a black-and-white aerial photograph taken taken in 1965, as well as a few local resident's pictures.

Although there is no commemoration on the sight or at the downtown library, this library was central to the desegregation movement nationally.

A series of sit-ins were staged in the Greenville County Library during the spring and summer of 1960. These sit-ins culminated in the sit-in by a group of eight students now known as the Greenville Eight on July 15, 1960 that helped kickstart the desegregation movement in Greenville.

The movement began on March 20, 1960 when around 20 African-American students entered the whites-only branch of the library. They left when the librarian threatened to call the police, but the first move had been made.

Merely two weeks later on March 15, 1960, a group of seven students, Hattie Smith, Doris Walker, Dorothy Franks, Blanche Baker, Virginia Hurst, Benjamin Downs and Robert Anderson, sat down in the whites-only library and peacefully refused to leave. All seven were arrested, but their lawyer requested a jury trial to fight the arrests. The trial was repeatedly postponed, so another sit-in was organized.

The second sit-in was carried out on July 15, 1960 by a group of eight students: Jesse Jackson, Dorris Wright, Hattie Smith Wright, Elaine Means, Willie Joe Wright, Benjamin Downs, Margaree Seawright Crosby, and Joan Mattison Daniel. Everything about this event was chosen to represent their community in the best possible light. Each of these eight students were National Honor Society members, who intended to pursue a college education. Rev. James Hall, who helped organize the sit-ins, said that the library was chosen both because it was symbolic of their overarching goals and besides, “how can they refuse students to go to a library to get a book so they could improve their knowledge?” Unfortunately, the students were forcibly removed from the library and arrested.

These arrests eventually forced the issue into the courts. In order to avoid judicial action, the City Council ordered the library to be closed on September 2, 1960. J. Kenneth Cass, who was serving as Greenville Mayor at the time, said “The efforts being made by a few Negroes to use the White library will now deprive all White and Negro citizens of the benefit of a library.” Pressure from Greenville County citizens of all races forced the libraries to reopen on September 19, 1960, just a little over two weeks after they had closed. Although no official statement announcing desegregation was ever made, the libraries were open to members of any race when they reopened.

The old schoolhouse used as a library would be replaced by 1970 with a larger more modern building to hold the expanded usership following desegregation.

We in the Black community of Greenville are waiting on some recognition for this historic national event that has several books written about it and was the launching point of Jesse Jackson's career.

Suggested Reading:

Kate Tuttle, "Jackson, Jesse Louis." Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition, edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr. Oxford African American Studies Center.

Judith Bainbridge. “Integrating Greenville's Library in 1960.” The Greenville News, July 14, 2016.

Lillia Callum-Penso, "'Greenville Eight' Celebrated on Anniversary of Library Sit-in." The Greenville News, Jul 11, 2010.

George M. Eberhart, “The Sit-In That Integrated the Greenville Library.” American Libraries 48, no. 6 (June 2017): 34–35.

Estellene P. Walker, editor. “Greenville County Library.” "So Good and Necessary a Work”: The Public Library in South Carolina 1698-1980.