On January 18, 1897, the New Orleans Public Library officially opened its doors, but it would take more than 16 years for the Library to start serving non-white patrons. In 1915, Dryades Library opened as the first “colored branch” in the city, thanks to funding from a Carnegie grant.
Prior to that point, the only Black patrons allowed in the city’s six public libraries were attorneys, who were permitted to use the Library’s law books.
In the almost two decades before Dryades opened, Black leaders in New Orleans repeatedly called for a library, but were told there were no funds to open one. It wasn’t until education reformer James Hardy Dillard stepped in –– with help from local clergyman Robert E. Jones and encouragement from Booker T. Washington –– and convinced the Andrew Carnegie Foundation to back the project that the City agreed.
Built at the top of what is now-called Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard, Dryades Library was located in the center of one of New Orleans’ most prosperous Black commercial areas. It opened on October 23, 1915 with 5,000 books and a two-person staff –– Adelia Trent and Delia Allen –– who were the first two librarians of color in New Orleans. Trent and Allen oversaw day-to-day activities at Dryades Library, which quickly became a pillar of the community.
For decades, the Dryades Library was the only public library in New Orleans to welcome Black patrons, and funding records show the location consistently received less money and materials than white branches.
According to Wayne and Shirley Wiegand’s book “The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South,” by the 1940s, some Black patrons were allowed to use the Main branches materials under the following stipulations: Black patrons had to stay inside the city librarian’s office where they were monitored and not allowed to use the Library’s card catalog.
After World War II, Library officials reserved one table in the reading room for “adult-colored persons,” according to Wiegand’s research. The move was met with complaint by white patrons, with one letter claiming that Black community members “are receiving too much rather than too little, and to a sizeable extent they are not taking care of what they receive.”
For many years, Black community leaders had been calling on the City to open a second “colored branch.” It wasn’t until 1946 when a local philanthropist named Nora Navra bequeathed the Library funds to build a new location, that the City decided to build one in the 7th Ward, a majority Black neighborhood.
Later that year, Library officials opened Branch 9 inside Valena C. Jones Elementary School as a temporary location while its permanent home was being built nearby.
When school started in the fall, Branch 9 moved into an empty lot on St. Bernard Avenue and N. Prieur Street, where two army surplus huts had been converted into a makeshift library. For the next eight years, Branch 9 was an integral part of the community, frequently visited by community leaders like A. P. Tureaud and Sybil Haydel-Morial.
The Nora Navra Library Branch opened in 1954, but while it was under construction, plans to integrate the entire system were quietly happening behind closed doors, according to Wiegand. In late 1953, Albert Dent, the president of Dillard University, started talks with the people responsible for peacefully integrating libraries in Dallas and Fort Worth, TX and devised a plan to recreate their success in New Orleans.
Dent put together a coalition of Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant clergy, as well as “a local white integrationist” to request that the New Orleans Public Library Board desegregate the entire institution. A month later, the coalition made their move. One board member, a white woman named Rosa F. Keller, immediately latched onto the idea and spoke in favor of integration at every board meeting, according to Wiegand. However, the board refused to vote on the issue, so Keller and Dent hatched a separate plan.
Together, Keller and Dent distributed a petition to allow Black residents to access the Lahache Music Library Collection, which was housed at Latter Library, a white-only branch on St. Charles Avenue. They hoped that by proving Black and white patrons could peacefully use the same collection side-by-side, the Board would be more amenable to integrating another new Library location, which was being built in Broadmoor at the time.
Meanwhile, on May 2, 1954, Nora Navra Library opened its doors. Tureaud spoke at the dedication ceremony, stating, “Public facilities which are provided on a racially segregated basis are not only a drain on our economic resources, but are an outmoded relic of a slave psychology… Libraries tend to free the mind of bigotry and prejudice; they are supposed to be a civilizing influence on the community. We need more of them.”
For a brief moment, New Orleans had two “colored libraries.”
Less than two weeks later, the Supreme Court ruled on the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case and declared that separate is not equal, clearing the way for Dent to implement the final phases of his plan.
On May 21, four days after the Supreme Court issued the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the city attorney advised the mayor that “no attempt be made to enforce segregation in any of the libraries.” The recommendation would effectively desegregate the Library system, but no public announcement was ever made, and nothing was published in the newspapers to recognize the decision.
This was an intentional and important part of Dent’s plan all along, according to Weigand, who called the move a “brilliant political strategy.” Instead of loudly proclaiming that the Library was no longer segregated, Dent wanted to avoid backlash and controversy and the potential chilling effect on Black patrons using the Library. Rather, he opted to quietly distribute the news to Black leaders, educators, and institutions that they could now use any Library they wanted.
Wiegand summarized the Library’s desegregation with a quote from an unnamed historian: “Like other smoothly achieved victories of the 1950s, the integration of libraries was facilitated by elite collusion—by the guarantee of little or no publicity, and by the pressures applied by a strategically placed white elite.”
Despite the integration of Library buildings, previously white-only locations remained segregated in most ways, including the use of water fountains and bathrooms.
Furthermore, though Library buildings were desegregated on paper, Black patrons were often harassed by staff and patrons in traditionally white locations. Ken and Kerry Sabathia, Elaine Parker Adams, and Lynne Taylor all lived in New Orleans and used the Library system during this time and recall only feeling welcome at Dryades and Nora Navra.
To fully integrate the system in practice as well as in theory, Library officials made staffing changes to signal welcomeness to Black patrons. In 1961, the Library hired Geraldine Vaucresson to work at the Napoleon Branch—now the Children’s Resource Center Library––as part of this initiative.
Between the 1940s and the 1980s, the Library used bookmobiles to bring resources and materials to underserved areas, including many predominantly Black neighborhoods. While bookmobiles are no longer in use, the Library continues to seek ways to serve neighborhoods without a Library location. For example, in 2024, the Library installed a vending machine inside NORD’s Desire/Florida Multi-Service Center, where cardholders can check out books and DVDs.
In the 1960s, the Library started work on three large regional libraries to serve the new neighborhoods being built on the edges of the city, including Lakeview, Algiers, and New Orleans East.
Dryades Library closed in 1965, after sustaining significant damage during Hurricane Betsy.
In 1968, East New Orleans Regional Library opened on Read Boulevard, bringing with it six days a week of Library services to the largely Black neighborhood. The library was the largest in the system at the time, and it quickly became a community hub. As the New Orleans Public Library system grew over the decades, more locations opened in historically Black neighborhoods, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in the Lower 9th Ward in 1995. Two years later, the Library introduced the African American Resource Center (AARC) as a reference division offering a variety of resource materials on the African diaspora.
The same year, the Broad Library was renamed Rosa F. Keller Library to honor her decades-long dedication to the Library, including her work on integration.
After Hurricane Katrina, Central City Library opened in the Mahalia Jackson Childhood & Family Learning Center, bringing Library services back to the neighborhood that housed the city’s first Black library.
In 2023, the Library opened the REACH Center, a multi-use community center in the 7th Ward. Shukrani Gray, head of access and opportunities, helmed the project, calling it “a return to the original vision,” of the AARC.
“Our big-picture vision is to offer resources and engagement in a space that is built for the local community, with their needs in mind,” Gray said. “Residents and businesses in this neighborhood have repeatedly voiced their desire for a free place to gather, learn, and grow together, and we’re so excited to fill that need.
Reading Buddies at the New Orleans Public Library aims to inspire the next generation of readers and writers through peer-to-peer mentorship.
Celebrated each year on March 19, St. Joseph Day honors the patron saint of workers and families. But in New Orleans, the tradition takes on a life all its own through the creation of St. Joseph Day Altars.
This Black History Month, we’d like to introduce you to Gertiana Williams, Charles Brown, and Tamyka Miles, three important Library leaders.
![Rosa F. Keller Rosa F. Keller was an important force in the integration of the New Orleans Public Library system. [New Orleans Public Library City Archives & Special Collections]](https://i0.wp.com/nolalibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Keller-4.jpeg?fit=412%2C288&ssl=1){kind=link}
![Rosa Keller and NOPL Board Rosa Keller with fellow Board members Wallace Young, William B. Wisdom, Dr. Humberto Valladares, and Paulette Holahan in 1974 shortly after Mayor Landrieu reappointed Young and named Valladares to succeed Clarence Barney. [New Orleans Municipal Government Photograph Collection, NOPL Series]](https://i0.wp.com/nolalibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Rosa-and-board.jpeg?fit=500%2C392&ssl=1){kind=link}
![Rosa F. Keller Benches Rosa Keller, then-Mayor Moon Landrieu, and Wallace Young enjoy a seat on the Library's new benches, one of Keller's last achievements on the Library board. [New Orleans Municipal Government Photograph Collection, NOPL Series]](https://i0.wp.com/nolalibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/rosa-benches.jpeg?fit=500%2C388&ssl=1){kind=link}
![Rosa Keller, Wallace Young Rosa Keller and Wallace Young share a moment at a quiet get-together at the Main Library in 1995. [New Orleans Municipal Government Photograph Collection, NOPL Series]](https://i0.wp.com/nolalibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Rosa-1995.jpeg?fit=500%2C448&ssl=1){kind=link}
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