Alexandria Library Sit-In
The Alexandra Sit-In - The Act of Bold Defiance
Samuel Wilbert Tucker was born on June 18, 1913, at 918 Queen Street. During his youth, he attended Parker-Gray School and graduated from Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C. Attending the segregated schools left a deep impression on him that would later fuel his fire to fight for civil rights. Samuel later passed the bar exam at the age of 20 and became an activist in the fight against segregation and inequality.
In the summer of 1939, Tucker, then age 26, developed a strategy by preparing a select group of African American men for a deliberate act of civil disobedience. He along with 5 other African Americans staged a peaceful protest at the Alexandria Library in order to fight against segregation and mistreatment of people due to their race. William Evans,Otto L. Tucker,Edward Gaddis,Morris Murray, and Clarence Strange all asked for a library registration card in an all white library when they were denied and all grabbed a book and started to read at five separate tables anyway. In their bold act of defiance the police were called and the five men were charged with “disorderly conduct”. Samuel, who knew this would happen, swore to stand by the men in the court of law and got the charges dropped.
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Reference page
https://www.britannica.com/event/sit-in-movement
https://www.alexandriava.gov/museums/samuel-tucker-unsung-hero-of-the-civil-rights-movement
https://alexlibraryva.org/1939-sit-in
https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2017/06/01/i-always-will-refuse-civil-rights-library-sit-in/
Public in Name Only by ISBN: 9781625346575Publication Date: 2022-08-26Library History Round Table Reads Selection, March 2024 When Alexandria, Virginia's first public library was constructed just a few blocks from his home, Samuel Wilbert Tucker, a young, Black attorney, was appalled to learn that he could not use the library because of his race. Inspired by the legal successes of the NAACP in discrimination cases, he organized a grassroots protest to desegregate the library that his tax dollars supported. Public in Name Only tells the important, but largely forgotten, story of Tucker and a group of Black citizens who agitated for change in the terms and conditions of their lives. Employing the combined strategies of direct-action public protest, nonviolent civil disobedience, and municipal litigation, Tucker's initiative dovetailed with the national priorities and tactics of larger civil rights organizations. While Tucker's campaign did not end with the desegregation of the Alexandria Library, but instead resulted in the creation of a "separate-and-unequal" Jim Crow Black branch, the sit-in demonstration represents a momentous early struggle for racial equity waged through civil rights activism.
