On July 16, 1960, seven Black high school students and a college student entered the Greenville County Public Library. As they quietly read books and magazines, the librarian called the police, who arrived and arrested the students.
The Greenville (South Carolina) Library Desegregation Crisis involved eight African American students who protested the segregated library system in Greenville, South Carolina, from March 1, 1960, to September 9, 1960. The eight students included future civil rights leader and presidential candidate Jesse Jackson, Dorris Wright, Hattie Smith Wright, Elaine Means, Willie Joe Wright, Benjamin Downs, Margaree Seawright Crosby, and Joan Mattison Daniel.
Jackson, a Greenville native and freshman college student at the University of Illinois, was back in Greenville, South Carolina, for Christmas break in December 1959. While in Greenville, Jackson needed a book to write a college research paper. The book Jackson needed was unavailable at the colored library branch, a one-room, dilapidated house on East McBee Avenue. The Librarian at the colored library branch wrote a note and told Jackson to visit the White-only branch of Greenville Public Library, where the book was located. Jackson then went to Greenville Public Library and gave the Librarian the note. Although the book was visible on the shelf inside, the Librarian told Jackson that he had to wait six days before he could use it. Jackson pleaded with the Librarian, but policemen who were present told him, “You heard what she said.” Jackson then left the library upset…