 On August 21, 1939, William Buddy Evans, Edward Gattis, Otto L. Tucker, Morris Murray, and Clarence Buck Strange, ages 19 to 22, were arrested at Alexandria, Virginia's only public library. The five young men were charged with disorderly conduct when all they'd done was request a library card and sit down to read. This quiet act of rebellion was the nation's first recorded library sit-in. It was the first recorded direct action sit-in protest for black access to a library. Sit-ins had occurred as early as the 19th century, so this was not a new phenomenon, but it was the first time an effort was made to integrate libraries, recognizing their importance as learning instruments. The city of Alexandria opened the doors of its first library located on Queen Street in 1937. Samuel Wilbert Tucker, a 26-year-old civil rights attorney and an alumnus of Howard University grew up two blocks away. Despite being tax-paying city residents, he and his brother Otto had to travel to Washington, D.C. to use a library that allowed black patrons. The sit-in was organized by Tucker, who also defended the participants in court after their arrest. Eight months after the sit-in, the Robert Robinson library was built for black patrons just blocks away. This meant the black community would have a library, but one that was clearly inferior to the one on Queen Street. There were racialized differences in the two libraries. The white library, when it was constructed in 1937, contained, for example, 10,000 books. In 1940, the city built a library for blacks, but it was very, very much inferior to the Alexandria library. It, for example, only contained about 1,500 books. In 1940, the city opened the Robert H. Robinson library, which was a segregated facility for African-Americans, and being in this space, you can see that it's actually not a very big space. So you imagine it with bookcases around the wall, an area for the librarian to sit, tables and benches and chairs, and I think there was even a little janitor's closet. It was not a very big space, I think really probably about 700 square feet of space for the community. The judges in the case of the sit-in never ruled on the charges of disorderly conduct, let alone the constitutionality of denying them entry. And while the existence of the Robinson library finally provided some access to books, African-American community members did not forget what happened at the larger public library. Even after the library system was fully integrated in 1962, families were unsure about sending their children to the once-whites-only library. Today, the city of Alexandria continues to remember the events of the sit-in. There are plaques located in many places that were part of the sit-in story, and the building that once served as the Robert Robinson library houses the Alexandria Black History Museum. The museum has held commemorations and curated exhibits, and the library holds yearly events to memorialize the sit-in. And as we prepared for the 75th, then we decided that we would celebrate it as a system. Every single library branch in Alexandria celebrated the sit-in anniversary. And in 2000, Alexandria City Public Schools opened the doors of the Samuel Tucker Elementary School. Tucker's vision and the protesters' courage continues to inspire. And just like Samuel Tucker and so many others, we are still fighting for equitable access, autonomy, and agency in critical learning spaces like libraries and schools. New America's library sit-in project aims to highlight the examples set by civil rights pioneers like Samuel Tucker, William Buddy Evans, Edward Gattis, Morris Murray, Clarence Buck Strange, and Otto Tucker. It was a challenge to the authoritative perspective that library access was reserved for whites and that blacks did not deserve admission. They could not learn, they would always remain ignorant, and so there was no need to provide them with library access. Today's political and social climate presents an opportunity to confront and learn from our past in order to inform the future. By elevating the story of the library sit-in and highlighting the work of the community leaders who are keeping Samuel Tucker's legacy alive, New America hopes to inspire other communities to do the same introspective work of understanding our past to create a better tomorrow. And I just feel so privileged that I get to tell their story and share their history and share it in a way that connects people with understanding about the core of basic civil rights and how it is so important to everyone in this country to have those rights. For more information on New America's library sit-in project, visit our website.