LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The nation's first free public library for African Americans has roots in the commonwealth. 

“Western [Library] was like the community center,” said Natalie Woods, branch manager. “We didn’t have a lot of those things back then, so this is where people came.” 

A branch of the Louisville Free Public Library, Western Library, opened in 1905. 

“Rev. [Thomas Fountain] Blue was not a trained librarian because you couldn’t go to the library due to Jim Crow laws; you couldn’t go to library school,” Woods said.

As Woods showed off a pictorial timeline mural of the library’s history, she said it‘s the first in the U.S. to provide library services exclusively for the African-American community.

“Western is the first African American library in the nation, built for, ran by African Americans,” Woods said. “It was an all African American staff.” 

Woods, who is biracial, said the library was considered an experiment.

“Because of what Rev. Blue did, it paved the way for someone like me to do the work that I do today because we were not able to go to library school,” she said. “We could [not] do anything like that. They ran a library school out of this building so that African Americans all over the South could come here, learn how to do a lot, provide library services to the communities and take that back to the states and the cities that they were from.” 

She now helps honor the librarians who fought hard for a space to read books and connect so she can carry her heritage.

“It’s important to me to protect it in the time that I’ve been here at this branch and preserving it so that it’s here for future generations,” Woods said. “And then, hopefully, it will inspire them to want to become a librarian.” 

Western Library started archiving its African-American history as a digital library in 2019. It provides access to anyone who seeks it.