From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Richmond Colored Branch Library (Madison County, KY)
(start date: August 21, 1941 )The Richmond Colored Library was located in the Richmond Colored School. The library was a branch of the Altrusa Club Library. The club had formed a library for whites with the assistance of the WPA pack horse libraries. When funding for the pack horse libraries was discontinued, the WPA financed a librarian's salary and donated at least 1,000 books to organizations within a town that was willing to take on the responsibility of a public library. The Altrusa Club library opened in Richmond on August 21, 1941, and the following year the Richmond Colored Branch Library was opened within the colored school. The colored library had 200 books and was managed by school principal Joseph Fletcher and his wife Margaret who was a teacher at the school. More books were to be added to the collection if the library was actually used by the public. There are no annual reports about the library and it is not known how long the library continued as a public library. The city's Richmond Public Library, a Woman's Club Library, did not provide services to Negroes prior to 1956, but the library did provide discarded and duplicate books and periodicals to the Richmond Colored School library. There was also bookmobile services in the community. For more see Library Service to African Americans in Kentucky by R. F. Jones; and J. Barrow, "Richmond Public Library," Bulletin of the Kentucky Library Association, v.8, p.15.