"Although the majority of libraries in the state of Kentucky did not offer services to African Americans between 1860 and 1960, public libraries did employ them.".

"The Louisville Public Library, a leader in the development of management and education from 1905 to 1925, began in 1912 to train African American women to be librarians in segregated branches opening in the South. In 1925, an academic program was developed for African Americans at the Hampton Institute in Virginia to continue the work that began in Kentucky. This movement culminated with Helen F.

Frye's becoming in 1963 the first African American to graduate with a master of library science degree from the University of Kentucky Library School." "This work moves from the provision by Berea College of the first library services to a fully integrated student body in 1866, through the integration of the state's only accredited library science program at the University of Kentucky in 1949, to the civil rights initiatives of the 1960s.".

"Also addressed are the interconnectedness of libraries and societal events and how one affected the other."--BOOK JACKET.