Libraries cost money to build and maintain, regardless of how they are organized, and at the turn of the 20th century if you wanted a library you would write to Andrew Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie took the fortune he made in steel and turned it around to support libraries for everyone without looking at color. In areas of intense segregation, African Americans became fed up with the substandard quality of the library they were allowed to use as opposed to the library for white people. Carnegie would hear their complaints and then build a better library for the African Americans than the white people had. This was especially prominent in Houston, where his support led to the people negotiating with the city for an all-black board of trustees. He
