CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is honoring the legacy of a respected and well-known pioneer, Allegra Westbrooks.
Westbrooks made history by being the first African American public library supervisor in North Carolina.
The Beatties Ford Road Regional Library was renamed to honor her legacy.
Alesha Lackey serves as the branch manager at the Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library.
Lackey says she’s grateful to work at a library named after a pioneer in the library system.
“To be a part of the Allegra Westbrooks community is super significant to me as a librarian who happens to be a Black woman at the only Charlotte Mecklenburg library thats named for an individual who also happens to be a Black woman,” Lackey said. “It’s just super special.”
Westbrooks’ career with the library began in 1947 before desegregation.
“Allegra Westbrooks was truly a pioneer,” Lackey said. “She helped to open doors when we didn’t even know we would be here generations and years later. She worked at a branch that served persons of color primarily and even before the library was integrated, she began to work at the former main library uptown.”
Westbrooks also ran a bookmobile, which inspired families to read, ensuring Black communities had access to materials they needed.
“When persons of color or Black people would request books from the non-integrated library, Allegra Westbrooks is the person who would go to retrieve those materials and bring them back to the library branches that was specified and designated for persons of color,” Lackey said. “I imagine that her work was very challenging and daunting, but I do believe she felt the charge to connect the community with the resources and books they needed at that time.”
Westbrooks died in 2017. She was 96 years old.
Lackey says one way to honor Westbrooks’ legacy is by showing love and kindness throughout your community.
“Everyday I want to be better. I strive to be a better manager, a better friend, coworker. I think customers coming into the library, one easy way to honor Westbrooks is to try to be better, learn something new, help somebody and be the best neighbor, best community member that you can be,” Lackey said.
Lackey credits the former branch manager Hannah Terrell and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., for helping to get the library renamed in Westbrooks’ honor.