Petersburg Public Library

The Petersburg Public Library was established in 1924, when Clara McKenney gave her house at 137 S. Sycamore Street to the City for the purpose. The Benevolent Mechanics Association donated their lending library to the City to provide a starting collection of books and Theresa Hodges was hired as the first library director.

In 1958, the library received an addition, which housed the Anna M. Dunlop gallery. The A.P. Hill Library opened on the second floor of the A.P. Hill Community Center in 1976 and the Rodof Sholom Library at 1865 S. Sycamore Street opened in 1988. By the 1990’s, however, space was becoming an issue. The aging buildings were also not designed with 21st century technology in mind.

The Petersburg Library Foundation was founded to fund raise and plan a new state-of-the-art facility. The new building 201 W. Washington Street opened in April of 2014. In the decade of 2010-2019, the library issued 26,964 library cards, added 53,793 items, checked out 1,004,131 items, and had approximately 600,000 guests.

Art Work

The Petersburg Area Art League sponsored and the won the bid to name the Dunlop Art Gallery in the 1958 addition to the McKenney Library. Dunlop’s work, housed in the gallery, is still on display in the new library.

Anna M. Dunlop was born in 1883. She studied art at Columbia University and in Europe, studying in Paris under Raphael Collins and James McNeill Whistler. Upon her return to Petersburg, Dunlop opened a studio and organized the Petersburg Area Art League.

She was the first artist to have a one-man show at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, inaugurating the Virginia Artists series of rotating shows. Dunlop died on January 1, 1957.

Civil Rights at the Petersburg Public Library

From the library’s establishment, the library was segregated. Black patrons were restricted to use of the side entrance on Marshall Street and to a browsing collection in the poorly lit basement. The upper floors and main entrance were reserved for white patrons. On February 27, 1960, one-hundred and forty African Americans, primarily students at Peabody High School and Virginia State College, entered the main entrance of the library and took all the seats in the Library. The Library closed for four days to all patrons while City Council, in spite of pleas to end library segregation, passed strict anti-trespassing ordinances to discourage further protest.

On March 7, fifteen black patrons entered the front door of the library and took seats. Eleven were arrested for violating the anti-trespassing ordinance and faced a fine of $1000 and up to one year in jail. Six posted bond and were released while five refused bail and stay in jail for two nights. On March 8, some 200 people staged prayer protest on the courthouse steps for the arrest and incarceration of the arrested library patrons. On March 9, over 1400 people gathered at Zion Baptist Church where the crowd was addressed by those released from jail after protesting the segregated library.

A telegram was read from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and $1115 in donations was collected for the library protestors. March 14 all eleven library protestors were convicted for trespassing. The next day, protestors filed an injunction in the Federal District Court in Richmond, asking the court to end the “humiliating and unconstitutional” practice of segregation in the library. More than 180 people in 30 cars caravanned from Petersburg to Richmond for the filing.

After a small sit-in, the library was closed on July 6, 1960, pending the result of the injunction. City officials used the time to discuss various legal matters, among them, the deed of the library, which specifically named the basement as being for “colored persons”.

On November 7, 1960, The Petersburg Public Library was reopened, the first municipally operated facility in Petersburg to be desegregated. On that day, there were 100 patrons in the library and 15 were African American.

In December 1980, Petersburg native Wayne Crocker became the first African American Director of Library Services. For forty years, he has overseen the growth and development of the Library.