By Val Thomas-Matson
This September the Seattle Alumnae Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. celebrates the 50 year legacy of the African American Collection at Seattle Public Library’s Douglass-Truth Branch (Formerly named the Yesler Branch).
In 1964, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority member, civil rights activist and Yesler Branch Librarian Roberta Byrd Barr, who went on to become Seattle Public Schools’ first woman high school principal, informed the sorority of the library’s considerations to close the Yesler Branch.
In 1915, the Seattle Public Library’s Yesler Branch opened to Seattle’s pioneer and immigrant communities. By the 1940s there was a population shift, and Jewish residents populated the Central Area. The Yesler Branch housed the bulk of the Public Library’s Hebrew and Yiddish books. After World War II, the Central Area experienced another population shift and African Americans moved into the community.
The library’s circulation numbers began to drop, leading librarians’ to question the need for a library in the Central Area. Alpha Kappa Alpha members challenged the library to keep the doors open and update its collections to reflect the interests of the neighborhood. In 1965, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority donated over 300 books to the library and began the “Negro Life and History Collection.”
Alpha Kappa Alpha fostered a group of concerned citizens to form the Black Friends of Yesler Branch Library, and in 1975 they launched a Rename the Yesler Library Contest. The branch was renamed Douglass-Truth due to a tie of votes for Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth.
In 1998, voters approved a $196.4 million “Libraries for All” bond measure, which included expansion of the Douglass-Truth Library. Most of the addition is below street level, to ensure the historic preservation of the building. A grand staircase beckons patrons to the expansive African American Collection, which encircle the exterior walls of the lower level.
On Sunday, September 28, the Seattle Alumnae Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. will host its Annual Library Tea and celebrate the 50 year legacy of the African American Collection at Douglass Truth Library. The program will feature sorority members from 1964, a special dedication by sorority member Dr. Mona Lake Jones, and the chapter’s annual donation to maintain and refresh materials for the African American Collection.
