Faith Cabin Library
Faith Cabin Libraries were a system of libraries created in South Carolina and Georgia providing library services to Black Americans who were not allowed to use public libraries because of segregation laws.[1] HistoryThis library system was created in the 1930s and 1940s by Willie Lee Buffington, a White mill worker, and his childhood friend, a Black teacher Euriah Simpkins.[2][3] Simpkins had invited Buffington to the opening of a Saluda County school for Black students. Buffington, surprised and upset by the lack of books in the school, began a letter-writing campaign to area churches soliciting book donations for his library project.[3] However, there were too many books for the school itself, so Buffington and Simpkins decided to build a library themselves.[3] The first library--the Lizze Koon unit after Buffington's mother--a small free-standing log cabin building, opened in 1932 in Saluda County.[2][3] It was 18 feet by 22 feet with a rock chimney.[4] The building's furniture was barrels for chairs and kerosene lamps for illumination.[4] At the library's opening, a community member said "we didn't have money, all we had was faith" which lent a name to both the building and the movement as Faith Cabin Libraries.[5] PublicitySimpkins' and Buffington's project spread throughout South Carolina and Georgia, through print publications such as Southern Workman and, later, publications such as Reader's Digest, the Saturday Evening Post and Library Journal.[5] Buffington was active in publicity for the project, appearing on the Hobby Lobby radio program; his appearance helped raise enough money for a library in Lexington, South Carolina.[5] Ted Malone profiled the movement in a 1948 radio broadcast.[5] Buffington's life and the origin story of the movement was dramatized in 1951 in the Cavalcade of America radio series .[5] Buffington, who was on the faculty of Paine College, a Methodist college in Augusta, Georgia, created a slide collection with a script that could be used by Woman's Society of Christian Service of the Methodist Church to promote the movement.[5] Buffington's salary for the project was being paid by divisions of the Methodist church by the early 1950s.[5] South Carolina projectsThe Works Progress Administration provided library services throughout the state of South Carolina between 1936 and 1943, however it was disproportionately providing services to White people.[5] During the time the WPA provided library services to South Carolina, there were more Faith Cabin Libraries serving the Black population than WPA libraries.[5] The State Library Board actively denied the existence and continued operation of Faith Cabin libraries in the early 1950s.[5] Georgia projectsBuffington worked with Robert Cousins who was the director of Negro Education in Georgia, to identify communities who wanted Faith Cabin libraries.[5] Assistance in curating and organizing book collections in libraries was provided by the Atlanta University Library School.[5] Seventy-five Faith Cabin libraries were established in Georgia between 1944 and 1960, primarily in school buildings.[5] In total, there were twenty-nine Faith Cabin Libraries built in South Carolina and over seventy in Georgia.[6] Each community was responsible for housing the book collection and operating their own library.[5] ConclusionIn the 1950s and 1960s school consolidations eliminated many of the smaller schools with Faith Cabin collections, and public libraries were integrated by the mid-1960s.[5] The library system remained active until the mid-1970s.[4] The Faith Cabin Library at Paine College remained open and available until Buffington retired in 1975.[5] There are three remaining free-standing Faith Cabin Library buildings, one in Pendleton, South Carolina, one in Saluda County, South Carolina and one in Seneca, South Carolina.[7][8] The building in Seneca is being repurposed as a Black history museum.[9] References
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