Library from a Different Era
Libraries were once places of learning and enlightenment. Communities planned events around them, celebrated histories within and could not imagine life without them. And so was the case for most African-American communities. The National African American Archives, a place that attempts to preserve local African American history, in Mobile, Alabama, was once the home to the Davis Avenue Branch Library, the only library in the city available to descendents of African slaves from 1932 through the 1960s. But its significance doesn't stop there. It was designed by famed architect George Bigelow Rogers and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, DC. Currently, the National African American Archives suffers from lack of adequate resources to rehabilitate the structure, which has succumb to numerous disasters: rain, hurricane and flood events and other non-weather related circumstances. It's interesting that a place that strives to hold on to its cultural artifacts with such a rich history is in need of much structural repair itself.
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