CHARLOTTE MECKLENBURG LIBRARY

Allegra Westbrooks pioneered the expansion of library services to black Charlotteans during segregation. Charlotte Mecklenburg Library renamed its Beatties Ford Road Branch in her honor in April. Westbrooks joined the library system in 1947 as manager of the Brevard Street Library for Negroes, the only branch open to African Americans.

Allegra Westbrooks brought the power of literacy to Charlotte’s underserved communities.

She was the first African American librarian at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, now known as Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

CML renamed the Beatties Ford Regional Library to Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library-Beatties Ford Road last month, the first time a branch has been named for an individual. The 19,645-square foot facility opened on April 20, 1997 in place of the historic North Branch, which had served northwest Charlotte since 1957.

A new sign with the new name was installed on April 15. The renaming ceremony and celebration scheduled for April 25 have been postponed due to COVID-19. The library system has been closed since March 17.

“The Library plans to move forward with a celebration of Ms. Westbrooks, her legacy and the official renaming of the Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library at a date and time to be determined later this summer,” Dana Eure, acting director for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library said in a statement.

Westbrooks was born in Cumberland, Maryland in 1921, but grew up in Fayetteville. She joined the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County in 1947, prior to desegregation. She managed the Brevard Street Library for Negroes, which was the only library serving black residents.

“When she joined in 1947, Kelly Alexander [president of the local NAACP chapter] had brought in an education specialist to do a survey of the entire school system, black and white schools, to look at where were the real obvious inequalities between the schools,” Levine Museum of the New South historian Willie Griffin said. “Black schools did not have libraries, and if they did they had very few books. They didn’t have cafeterias sometimes, gyms or other things like that. A large part of the integration was so that African Americans could have access, not so that they could go to school with white people, but to have access to better facilities. In order to really take advantage of people, you have to keep them unaware. You have to keep them uninformed. If you think about it in that context, she was one of the most important figures in the local civil rights movement.”

Westbrooks attended Atlanta University and spent time in Louisville, Kentucky before heading to Charlotte. She was promoted to supervisor of branches in 1957, becoming the first African American public library supervisor in the state. Westbrooks retired in 1984 and died at age of 96 in 2017.

“What she had to do was survey the library, see what kind of books they had, and what was needed,” Griffin said. “In addition to the Brevard Street Library, the only places that African Americans could get books were in churches and some in schools, but these places weren’t always open and available. When you only have one branch in a city and a county that serviced thousands of African Americans, not just African Americans who lived in Brooklyn, she took on the responsibility of trying to get library services to African Americans all throughout the county in places like Mint Hill.”

Griffin, who grew up around the corner from Westbrooks, interviewed her in 2008. He took away her belief in the “gospel of books” from that interview. Churches across the county allowed her to speak to the importance of books.

“That was her sermon,” Griffin said. “She really dedicated herself to that cause.”

Westbrooks established a book mobile program to encourage reading and traveled all over the county.

“Even before the library integrated in 1957, she was doing this,” Griffin said. “Within that 10-year span she was using the book mobile program to travel around the county to places she knew African Americans were. She stood outside black schools because at the time, the book mobile program was not allowed to sit at local public branches of libraries in other parts of the county because they had not been integrated yet, so a black book mobile could not sit on its property.”

Westbrooks wanted to bring in more books by and about African Americans, which she requested the main branch provide a budget for. She built up more than a book collection, as she fostered a love of knowledge.

“She is one of the more unsung heroes that deserve attention,” Griffin said. “If you think about the civil rights movement, a large part of African Americans gaining quality and access in this country was about education and knowledge, and where do you get that? You get that from books.”

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