Alexandria Black History Museum facts for kids
The Alexandria Black History Museum is located at 902 Wythe St., Alexandria, Virginia. It is operated by the City of Alexandria. The building was constructed in 1940 and was home to the Robert Robinson Library, the first "separate but equal" library for African Americans in the segregated city. The museum has changing exhibitions on local and national topics related to African Americans.
History
In 1794, Alexandria Library opened as a private lending library. In 1937, Dr. Robert South Barrett donated funds to build Alexandria's Public Library. The Library Company cooperated with the Alexandria City Council to turn over its collections to City of Alexandria as the City agreed to include the public library's operating expenses in its budget.
Since the library's budget was collected from the taxes paid by every American Citizen regardless their race, lawyer Samuel Wilbert Tucker organized in 1939 a sit-in at the new and "whites only" Alexandria, Virginia public library (Kate Waller Barret branch). Virginia's police arrested the the participants.
The 1939 event is commonly known as the first non-violent protest by African Americans against racial segregation.
Museum
The museum also operates the Alexandria African American Heritage Park, a 9-acre (3.6 ha) park at 500 Holland Lane, which contains a 1-acre (0.40 ha) nineteenth-century African-American cemetery that was buried under a city landfill in the 1960s.
