{"id":13119,"date":"2020-02-24T16:00:58","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T00:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000007571"},"modified":"2020-02-24T16:01:42","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T00:01:42","slug":"african-american-resource-center-finds-a-new-home-in-burnett-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/african-american-resource-center-finds-a-new-home-in-burnett-library","title":{"rendered":"African American Resource Center finds a new home in Burnett Library"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a bit of a head fake in the Burnett Library.<\/p>\n

As you enter the main area and look to the left you see the sign promoting the African American Resource Center. Stroll over and underneath the sign you\u2019ll see \u201cWindows 10 For Dummies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wait. What?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry, although the signage hasn\u2019t caught up, Burnett Library is still home to the city\u2019s homegrown and founded resource for Black history. And now, rather than being tucked in the main room, it has a good-sized alcove all to itself.\u00a0Walk past the desk of Shiloh Moore, senior librarian, where books on Harriet Tubman, the Tuskegee Airmen and Nat King Cole are displayed, and you\u2019ll find the new home of the Resource Center.<\/p>\n

There you’ll find a self-published autobiography by local activist Alice Robinson, co-founder of a free monthly hot lunch program at Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Close by is \u201cThe Heritage of African Americans In Long Beach: Over 100 Years,\u201d by genealogy expert Aaron Day and Indira Hale Tucker, along with \u201cUntold Legacies: A Pictorial History of Black Long Beach 1900-2000,\u201d edited by historian Sunny Nash.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s more like it.<\/p>\n

The brainchild and legacy of the late Hale Tucker, as well as former vice mayor Doris Topsy-Elvord, the African American Resource Center features more than 1,000 items, including the Hale Tucker\u00a0black women\u2019s collection, the Burnett African American Heritage collection and children\u2019s books and DVDs.<\/p>\n

For years, before donating her collection to the library, Hale Tucker had volunteered at King Park teaching classes to children. Topsy-Elvord was director of the park before she was elected to Long Beach City Council as its first African American female member.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod put us together,\u201d said Topsy-Elvord, who served two, two-year terms as vice mayor. \u201c[Hale Tucker] had a lot of interest in it and wanted it to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Doris Topsy-Elvord<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WIth Topsy-Elvord\u2019s political acumen and Hale Tucker\u2019s drive, the African American Heritage Society and Resource Center were created in 1997.<\/p>\n

Glenda Williams, director of library services for Long Beach, said the collection is unique not only for its local focus but its optimistic subject matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was very important to [the founders] to have history and positive role models,\u201d Williams said. \u201c[Hale Tucker] wanted to have a collection that was inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angelique Chamberlain, vice president of the Heritage Society and daughter of Indira and Marcus Tucker, the first African American municipal judge in Los Angeles, said she grew up in a house overflowing with books.<\/p>\n

Chamberlain, who lives in New York, said that after her parents died, \u201cI must have donated thousands of books. Reading was a big passion of theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In particular, Chamberlain said her mom sought books of \u201clesser-known Black achievement. People that may not have been noticed and weren\u2019t athletes or entertainers.\u201d<\/p>\n