Albany Historian Calls For Carnegie Library To Change Its Name In Honor Of Civil Rights Activist

Clennon King is calling for other community members to contact local officials to make this change happen.

An Albany historian, Clennon King, is pushing for the Carnegie Library to change its name to honor Civil Rights activist Gwendolyn Crawford.

As reported by the National Park Service, over 1,600 Carnegie Libraries were built in the South. While some of them allowed access to all people regardless of race and gender, one Albany, Georgia, location did not.

King pointed to one picture that encapsulated the fight for integration during the Albany Movement protest: an image of Crawford when she was just 12 years old being carried by police off the stairs of the Carnegie Library as she was protesting.

Crawford recalled, “At that moment, no matter what they did to us, it didn’t matter. Because we were marching for a cause. We were fighting for a cause.”

Crawford and other activists of the time were arrested for fighting for Black rights outside of the library. At the time, the 12-year-old was in jail for 10 days, but a year after her arrest, the Carnegie Library allowed Black people to use the public service.

Albany historian Clennon King wants to honor Crawford and her work by renaming the current central library branch after her. He said, “This has got to be done. There is a section in history where you lose history completely. And so we want to make sure she gets her flowers now and those like her.”

He explained the significance of the location to WALB 10 News. “This was an important stop on the trail to Democracy in this country, and I’m talking about the Albany Movement, Albany, Georgia. And so, we need to start reclaiming our history,” he stated.

Crawford expressed her gratitude for King’s efforts to get the library renamed after her, and she agreed that it would be a cornerstone in preserving Albany’s history. “To even go to the library now, there were people that had to fight for that for them and so it’s essential for people to know our history, to know what we did,” she said.

King has already contacted the Albany Library Board of Trustees to change the building’s name, and he has announced his next step: He will begin writing to Albany county leaders to continue to call for the change. He’s encouraging others to follow suit and do the same.