As the fight for civil rights gained momentum in the 1950's and into the 60's, smaller battles unfolded throughout the South as young Black people sought the right to use their local public libraries. During the Jim Crow era, some southern towns maintained designated libraries for Black patrons, and in Gaffney that library was the Carver Library, located on Petty Street. Libraries for Blacks usually held worn-out, out-dated books or cast-offs from the main library, and if a book was unavailable at the Carver Library, the librarian would go to the nearby Carnegie Library to request it. Alzenia Gore Gaffney, born in Chester, South Carolina, on September 13, 1893, graduated from Benedict College, worked as a WPA employee and Cherokee County Home Demonstration Agent, and was instrumental in creating the first library for Blacks in Gaffney. She became the first librarian of the Carver Library when it was housed in Mason Hall on East Meadow Street and spent her life working to improve the lives of individuals through reading. Helen Sarratt Rodgers, a native of Gaffney born in 1923, later served as librarian at the Carver Library on Petty Street, established summer reading programs to motivate students, and encouraged children to love reading.