History
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The McKenney House was originally constructed as a residence for Mayor John Dodson in 1859. After the Civil War it was the residence of Confederate General William Mahone. William R. McKenney purchased the property in early 1911, and in 1923 the McKenney family gave the house to the city to be used as a public library in honor of the prominent lawyer. Opened in 1924, the library was segregated for decades, with white patrons allowed to use the main level and African-Americans allowed only in the basement level. In February 1960, Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker and Rev. R.B. Williams, African-American ministers, led a major sit-in there in an effort to desegregate the main level. That event began a major sit-in movement in Petersburg and led to the appointment of Rev. Walker of Gilfield Baptist Church as Executive Director of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Several months later, the library became one of the first Petersburg institutions to be integrated.
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Petersburg, Virginia · United States
