Alexandria Black History Museum facts for kids
The Alexandria Black History Museum is a special place in Alexandria, Virginia. It's run by the city and helps us learn about the history of African Americans in the area. The building used to be a library called the Robert Robinson Library. It was built in 1940 as the first library for African Americans in Alexandria, during a time when laws kept people of different races separate. This was part of a system called "separate but equal", which meant things were supposed to be equal but often weren't.
A Look Back at History
The story of libraries in Alexandria goes way back to 1794. That's when the Alexandria Library Company started as a private library where people could borrow books. Later, in 1937, a kind person named Dr. Robert South Barrett gave money to build a public library for Alexandria. The old Library Company worked with the city to give its books to the new public library. The city agreed to pay for the library's running costs.
But there was a problem. Even though everyone's taxes helped pay for the public library, the new Alexandria Public Library (Kate Waller Barret branch) was only for white people. This was because of segregation, which meant people of different races were kept apart.
In 1939, a lawyer named Samuel Wilbert Tucker decided to do something about this unfair rule. He organized a peaceful protest called a sit-in at the "whites only" library. During this protest, African Americans sat in the library to show that they deserved to use it too. They were arrested by the police.
This event in 1939 is often seen as one of the first peaceful protests by African Americans against segregation. Today, the museum often has new exhibits about important local and national stories related to African Americans.
What You Can See at the Museum
The museum also looks after the Alexandria African American Heritage Park. This park is about 9 acres (3.6 hectares) big and is located at 500 Holland Lane. Inside the park, there's a 1-acre (0.4 hectare) cemetery from the 1800s where African Americans were buried. This cemetery was unfortunately covered by a city landfill in the 1960s, but now it's part of the park and remembered.
See also
- Contrabands and Freedmen Cemetery
- Franklin and Armfield Office
- Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
- National Museum of African Art
- Anacostia Community Museum
- Founders Library
- Alexandria Library (Virginia)
- Jim Crow laws
- List of museums focused on African Americans
