Olivia Raney Library

Cameron Village Regional Library

Ms. Pearl Thompson in 1942 wasn’t allowed to have a library card or check out a book because she was Black. 73 years later, Ms. Thompson gets her card. Check out the video:

From N&O:

Thompson can’t remember which book she was assigned to read for that class. But Shaw didn’t have it, so she went to the Olivia Raney Library, although she knew it was only for whites.

“I expected to go in and get a book,” she said.

The Olivia Raney Library was Raleigh’s first public library. A separate library was established in 1935 on Hargett Street to serve blacks. That library eventually became the Richard B. Harrison Library on New Bern Avenue, said librarian Wanda Cox-Bailey.

The Harrison library merged with the white libraries in the 1960s, Cox-Bailey said. (more…)