From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Earlington Colored Library (Hopkins County, KY)
(start date: 1893)A newspaper article in 1893 mentioned a free public library for the colored people in Earlington. The name of facility was the John B. Atkinson, Jr. Library. The hours were 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., M-Sat. In 1899, it was claimed in The Bee newspaper that the town of Earlington, KY, was the only one of its size in Kentucky and other states to have a reading room for all of its citizens. The article asked for support of the Colored Reading Room with attendance at Assembly Hall on July 22, 1899. Sources: "Read," The Bee, 04/13/1893, p.2; "Free Libraries," The Bee, 07/30/1896, p.4; and "Earlington," The Bee, 07/20/1899, p.3.