Meet the Friends of Excelsior Library Foundation
Our mission
“The opening of these channels of instruction and activity will be fraught with inestimable good to our race, by keeping our boys and girls off the streets, away from the haunts of idleness and vice, to say nothing of its economic value in teaching principles of industry and thrift.”
Opened in a Guthrie home in 1908, the Excelsior Library is thought to be the first African-American library in Oklahoma and the entire Southwest. For nearly 40 years, this humble facility served as an educational hub for the African-American community, logging nearly 1,000 visitors a month. In 1954, a bond issue passed, leading to the construction of a proper library. After the implementation of desegregation a few years later, this new building served as an event and meeting space, eventually housing the Guthrie Police Department temporarily in the mid-1990s.
Unfortunately, time has not been kind to the building, which is why we need your help. The facility badly needs restoring, and the Friends of Excelsior Library was formed to ensure this vital piece of Oklahoma history receives the recognition and care it so deserves. Our goal is to renovate the building and turn it into what would be the state’s first museum for an African-American library. If you would like to donate or find out how to help our cause, please follow the link below.
Support African-American history. Support Oklahoma history. Support Excelsior Library.
Our story
Guthrie – our state's original capital – is a storied city whose place in Oklahoma's rich history is still recognized today. Its role in African-American history, although perhaps not as widely known, is just as noteworthy. After the Land Run of 1889, many African-Americans settled in "The Elbow" – a neighborhood in Guthrie's Cottonwood Creek that became known as "Little Africa" – and nearby Langston – founded by political activist Edward P. McCabe and home to Oklahoma's first and only historically black university. These two areas quickly became thriving early African-American communities, producing prominent black Oklahomans such as America's first black transcontinental pilot, James Herman Banning, and the on-scene commander for the Oklahoma City bombing rescue and recovery operations, Brig. Gen. T.L. Daniels.
Near the turn of the 20th century, black communities badly needed libraries. Almost one-third of African-Americans were illiterate, and it wasn’t until 1904 when the first African-American library in the United States opened. A few others followed in the years after, and they were often rudimentary – converted houses consisting of only a few book-stuffed rooms. Still, for a population who had earned the rights to citizenship and suffrage less than a half-century earlier, access to libraries and the self-education they could provide were essential to the advancement of African-American populations nationwide.
So when Judith Carter Horton founded Oklahoma’s first African-American library in 1908, Guthrie received a much-needed intellectual hub for its black residents. However, the initial success of the library was short-lived – soon Excelsior was incorporated in the Guthrie Public library system, which provided the library with only half as much funding as its white counterpart, the Carnegie Library, and discussed consolidating or dissolving the library’s board. In 1911, the Guthrie Daily Leader angered supporters of the library when it negatively depicted the facility and suggested shuttering it.
“The opening of these channels of instruction and activity will be fraught with inestimable good to our race, by keeping our boys and girls off the streets, away from the haunts of idleness and vice, to say nothing of Its economic value in teaching principles of industry and thrift.”
― Judith Carter Horton, Founder and Librarian of The Excelsior Library
how you can help
The Excelsior Library was formally added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, but its condition has deteriorated over years. The building long served the city and residents of Guthrie, and now it’s time to return that service. A donation to the Friends of Excelsior Library will help restore this once-proud facility and turn it into the state’s first museum for an African-American library, allowing it to be preserved as a pivotal piece of Oklahoma history. We thank you for visiting our site and reading our story, and we hope you will support our cause in any way you can. Please donate below – any amount helps!
