In July 1960, eight Black students in Greenville, South Carolina, staged a sit-in at the city's segregated public library, leading to their arrest and eventual integration of the facility. The protest, involving Jesse Jackson and seven others, highlighted libraries' role in upholding Jim Crow segregation. Their actions succeeded through a lawsuit, reopening the library to all patrons by September.
Public libraries in the United States during the Jim Crow era often maintained separate branches for white and Black users, with the Greenville Public Library in South Carolina operating such a system. In January 1960, Jesse Jackson, then a student on break from school in Illinois, visited the branch for people of color but found it lacked a needed book for his paper. The librarian offered to request it, but delivery would take six days, too late for his work. Jackson then attempted to enter the main, better-funded branch but was denied access, prompting him to plan further action.
Earlier that March, a group of 20 local Black high school students tried to desegregate the main library but failed when officials closed the facility. Days later, seven Black students returned and were arrested for disorderly conduct under state and city codes.
Jackson returned in the summer and collaborated with seven other young local students—Dorris Wright, Hattie Smith Wright, Elaine Means, Willie Joe Wright, Benjamin Downs, Margaree Seawright Crosby, and Joan Mattison Daniel. Supported by Reverend James S. Hall Jr., president of South Carolina's NAACP chapter, the group, known as the Greenville Eight, entered the main library on July 16, 1960. Police warned them of arrest if they stayed, but encouraged by Hall, they returned later that day. As Joan Mattison Daniel recalled in a 2017 American Libraries interview, “Some of us got a book, and others browsed the shelves.” The librarian asked them to leave, but they remained silent and unmoving. Police arrested all eight and briefly held them in jail until local Black attorney Donald J. Sampson and Hall secured their release.
No further sit-ins occurred, but Sampson filed a lawsuit demanding integration. The library closed to all patrons in response. During court proceedings, officials argued they could not integrate because the library was shuttered, blaming the activists for denying access to both Black and white communities. By September 1960, local pressure forced the library to reopen under court order, integrating its services.
The Greenville Eight's nonviolent protest succeeded, mirroring the 1961 Tougaloo Nine read-in in Mississippi that integrated libraries there. Sources connect this history to contemporary issues, noting Greenville's recent policy banning books on transgender topics for those under 18, now challenged in court by the ACLU and library users.
