The Library Sit-In of 1939: An Immersive Learning Space

FAIN: MD-296218-24

New America Foundation (Washington, DC 20005-1031)
Lisa Guernsey (Project Director: June 2023 to present)

An online exhibition exploring the 1939 civil rights protest by five African American men against the segregated policies of the public library in Alexandria, Virginia.

The Library Sit-In of 1939: An Immersive Learning Space is envisioned to be an online public learning space that tells the story of five young Black men who were arrested for peacefully protesting for their right to use Alexandria, Virginia’s, Whites-only public library in 1939. Scholars say this sit-in is the first recorded civil rights protest in the United States to take place in a public library, yet the event is little known outside of small circles of library historians and city residents. The project’s goal is to widen awareness of this historic event and the Jim Crow laws that sparked it. The project aims to situate the Library Sit-In within two key movements of the early-to-mid 20th-century: 1) recognizing the efforts by Black lawyers and activists to overturn racist policies and 2) highlighting a budding American education system, as communities of all racial identities aspired to develop public places for learning by opening libraries and expanding schools.