A 92-year-old woman who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio has finally gotten a library card, after being denied it 73 years years ago because she is black, the News & Observer reports.
As a student at Shaw University in 1942, Pearl Thompson went to a public library in Raleigh, North Caolina to check out a history book. Staff forbade Thompson from taking any reading materials off the premises. To the extent Thomas wanted to study, library employees told her to read in the basement. But, according to Thompson, librarians explicitly said she could not take books home with her.
“I was determined that when I became a teacher every child would have an opportunity to learn to read,” Thompson said, before describing the literacy work she had done with a kid who has Down syndrome.
“I’ll take my card now,” Thompson announced, before signing her name on the library card application she hadn’t been eligible to fill out decades earlier — because of the color of her skin.
Source: Raw Story