The Colored School Department of the Cossitt Library (Memphis, Tennessee)

The Cossitt Library (Memphis, Tennessee) opened the Colored School Department of the Cossitt Library in 1913. This department was responsible for providing library services to African Americans in Memphis. Cecelia K. Yerby was the head of the department. The Cossitt Library also established services for African Americans at the Booker T. Washington High School, the Howe Collegiate Institute, and the Vance Branch Library.

See related posts: The Negro Branch of the Carnegie Library of Nashville (Nashville, Tennessee) ; The Free Colored Carnegie Branch of the Lawson McGhee Library (Knoxville, Tennessee); and The Howard Branch of the Chattanooga Public Library (Chattanooga, Tennessee).

Sources: Yerby, Cecelia K. "Good Reading for Negroes II: A Memphis Library." The Southern Workman 43.10 (1914): 541-543. Print. ; Miller, Ernest I. "Library Service for Negroes in Tennessee." Journal of Negro Education 10.4 (1941): 636-637. Print. ; Hudson, Earline H. "Library Service to Blacks and Black Librarians in Tennessee." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. 104, 109-110, 112. Print. ; Du Mont, Rosemary Ruhig and William Caynon. "Education of Black Librarians." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. Ed. Kent Allen, Harold Lancour, and Jay Daily. Vol. 45, suppl. 10. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1990. 111. Print.