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Race and Reading: The Evolution of the Black Library

Part of the 2024 Africana Arts & Humanities Festival

Join us for a discussion with historians, librarians, and library advocates to learn about the evolution of the Black library in Broward County.

The history of racism in access to literature is often overlooked, but segregation in libraries was widespread in the South. Broward County was no exception. Leaders in the Black community responded with self-determination, creating their own libraries to address the intellectual vacuum left by their exclusion from white-only public libraries. Join us for a discussion with historians, librarians, and library advocates to learn about the evolution of the Black library in Broward County. Panelists include historian Derek Davis; Evelyn Grooms and Edith Gooden-Thompson, both former educators, former members of the Friends of the Mizell Library, and former presidents of the Friends of AARLCC; Tanya Simons-Oparah, former AARLCC staff member; and Samuel F. Morrison, former director of Broward County Library and the founder of the African American Research Library and Cultural Center. 

This event is sponsored by the Friends of AARLCC.

For a complete schedule of events for the 2024 Africana Arts & Humanities Festival, click here.

Image: Event at the Mizell Library. Undated. The Von D. Mizell Library Collection, African American Research Library and Cultural Center, Broward County Library.

About the African American Research Library and Cultural Center 
The Broward County African American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) is located in the Sistrunk community, one of the oldest historically Black communities named for one of Fort Lauderdale’s first Black physicians. Opening to the public on October 26, 2002, AARLCC became the third public library of its kind in the United States dedicated to the study of Black history and culture. The 60,000 square-foot Center serves as a repository of materials related to the local, national, and international voices of the African diaspora with more than 85,000 books, manuscripts, artifacts, framed art, print, photography, audiovisual, and documents held in our Adult Services Section and Special Collections. The Youth Services Section features a special collection of Coretta Scott King Award books and the Ashley Bryan Art Collection from illustrators of African Descent. AARLCC also features a 5,000 sq. ft. museum, a 300-seat state-of-the-art theatre, and a Computer Training Center.

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