Page 27 - BCALA Winter 2018

than the Carver Branch; in the same way, the Carver Branch was also relocated to a larger building with “expansive glass walls that frame a spectacular and breathtaking view of the Mississippi River Bridge.” Although the system still has only one African American administrator (Mercedes Cobb) it does have
five African American librarians heading branches which is higher than the two they had in the year 2000. When the library system does promote or hire at least one other African American administrator, many librarians, as well as outsider observers, will believe the library system is truly engaged in an effort to integrate itself; as of now, many find it absurd that although the system has successfully become estranged from its Confederate origins it is still steadfast to its outdated “one token Negro at a time” promotion policy.
In 2004, Melvin “Kip” Holden
was elected Baton Rouge’s first African American mayor, which can be interpreted as an indication that Baton Rouge, like many cities in America’s southern region,
is receptive to a transformation
process that will constitute a city that is responsive to the reality of multiculturalism and equal sharing of political power. Today Baton Rouge has a quasi progressive public library system; due in
part, to three pioneering African American librarians who refused to accept this notion that African Americans could not effectively demonstrate the ability to apply practice and perspectives of managing information resources and technology, in a professional library setting.
BIBLIogRAPhy
http://brgov.com/dept/planning/ facts.htm#Location
http://www.ebr.lib.la.us/branch/ Carver.htm
Baton Rouge Daily Advocate Thursday, November 27, 1890.
Baton Rouge State Time Tuesday, September 4, 1928.
Mark T. Carleton, River
Capital: An illustrated
history of Baton Rouge,
American Historical Press, c1996).
James Sanders Cookston, "Development of Public Library Service In East Baton Rouge
Parish, Louisiana" (Ph. D. diss, Louisiana State University, 1959).
Daily Advocate, May 11, 1900.
William Ivy. Hair, Bourbonism and Agrarian Protest: Louisiana Politics 1877-1900.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 1969
Stuart Landry, Louisiana Almanac (New Orleans: Pelican Pub House, 1990).
Rosa Mae Miller Meyers, A History of Baton Rouge: 1699-1812 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, c1976).
Morning Advocate, September 14, 1939.
United States. Bureau of the Census, Negroes in the United States: 1920-1932 (Washington: U. S. govt. print. off., 1935).
BCALA NEWS | Volume 45, Issue 1 | 27