On November 19, 1968, the Columbus Metropolitan Library dedicated the first public library in the nation named after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After King's assassination on April 4, 1968, the East Side Community Council requested that the new library planned for the King-Lincoln Bronzeville community bear his name. The King family, which had both family and civic ties to Columbus, was honored by the tribute. More than 1000 people gathered outside 1600 E. Long Street to hear Martin Luther King Sr. deliver the dedication speech. Continuing the family tradition, Martin Luther King III cut the ribbon when a new branch building opened at 1467 E. Long Street on October 18, 2018. The Martin Luther King Branch was the first Columbus public library to bear an individual's name. Leon Andrew Ransom Jr. was an early African American architect practicing in Columbus. Born there in 1929, he moved with his family to Washington, D.C., two years later. After earning his MA in architecture from Catholic University of America in 1953, he was hired by a Columbus architectural firm in 1954. In 1964 he and Sylvester C. Angel opened Ransom & Angel, the city's first African American led architectural firm, and in 1968 he opened Leon A. Ransom & Associates. During his career he was involved in the Christopher Inn, St. Philip's Episcopal Church, the Union Grove Baptist Church addition, and Fire Station No. 8. In 1968 he designed the Martin Luther King Branch Library at 1600 E. Long Street, and he died at age 42.