In this Thursday, July 2, 2015 photo, Pearl Thompson, 92, is all smiles after she received a Wake County library card at the Cameron Village Regional Library in Raleigh, N.C.. Pearl Thompson was a student at Shaw University in 1942 when she was told she couldn’t check out a book from Raleigh’s public library because she was black. Seventy-three years later, Thompson finally has her library card. (Travis Long/The News & Observer via AP)
A 92-year-old Cincinnati woman recently accomplished her life-long goal of receiving a library card she was denied the privilege of receiving nearly seven decades earlier.
According to The (Raleigh, N.C.) News and Observer, Pearl Thompson was a student at Raleigh’s Shaw University in 1942 and was assigned to read a book for a history class. When her institution didn’t have the book, she went to Raleigh’s public library. The staff informed Thompson that because she was Black she was not able to check out the book, and instead had to read it in the basement of the library.
The memory of that incident stayed with Thompson. Years later; when her daughter Deborah helped her make a wish list of things she would like to do, returning to North Carolina and getting a library card was on the top of the list. Several Raleigh librarians also heard of Thompson’s story and wanted to make her dream come true. On July 2, she entered the town’s Cameron Village library to finally get her card.
Entering on her walker, Thompson told the staff “it’s going to take me awhile to get to you, but it’s been a long journey anyways,” according to the News and Observer.
Thompson told the library staff that the painful moment in 1942 ultimately motivated her to want to teach children to read.
“I was determined that when I became a teacher, every child would have an opportunity to learn to read,” she said in a video clip posted on the newspaper’s website. “I also brought you an example of a little boy with Down syndrome, and they said he would never learn to read. And I taught him to read. Even to the point he wrote books himself.”
Thompson taught for 49 years, 12 in Raleigh and 37 in Cincinnati. As a teacher, she developed a reputation of not being afraid to ask for help for her students. When a school principal in Raleigh announced that they were out of money, Thompson remembered going to the superintendent to request more funds. Soon after, a truck full of pencils, paper and chalk and more school supplies showed up at the school.
Thompson said she feels no bitterness about the library incident more than 70 years ago.
“I don’t hold any kind of hate in my heart, because that doesn’t do it,” she said. “That doesn’t get you there.”
Twitter: @hunter_jonathan
