March 7, 1964: St. Helena Four Stage Sit-In at Louisiana Library

A sign for the Audubon Library Summer Reading Program at the library’s St. Helena Parish branch beckons residents in Greensburg. Photograph by James Finn, July 9, 2021. Source: The Advocate

In the American Libraries article Desegregating Libraries in the American South, Wayne A. Wiegand wrote:

On March 7, 1964, four Black teenagers — including Alton Crier, Sterling Hall, and David Howard (the fourth’s name was never entered into the record) — approached the St. Helena branch of the Audubon Regional Library in Greensburg, Louisiana. The librarian saw them coming, recognized what was happening, immediately locked the door, and posted “closed” signs in the window. The four left.

“The street was crowded with Negroes and whites,” noted an observer for the Congress of Racial Equality (the activist organization that had helped plan the sit-in), while most of the town’s white merchants were standing on the sidewalk talking with spectators. Four days later, the youths returned and met the same response. Through the window, they saw the librarian make a phone call as they approached. Moments later she unlocked the door, came out, relocked it, and left. [Continue reading.]