Charlotte, North Carolina

===Libraries===
[[File:Imaginon.jpg|thumb|[[ImaginOn]] Children's Theater and Library]]
The [[Charlotte Mecklenburg Library]] serves the Charlotte area with a large collection (more than 1.5&nbsp;million) of books, CDs and DVDs at 15&nbsp;locations in the city of Charlotte, with branches in the surrounding towns of [[Matthews, North Carolina|Matthews]], [[Mint Hill, North Carolina|Mint Hill]], [[Huntersville, North Carolina|Huntersville]], [[Cornelius, North Carolina|Cornelius]] and [[Davidson, North Carolina|Davidson]]. All locations provide free access to Internet-enabled computers and WiFi, and a library card from one location is accepted at all 20 locations.<ref name="Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Info">{{Cite news|url=https://www.cmlibrary.org/about|title=Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Info|date=November 23, 2019|work=cmlibrary.org|access-date=November 24, 2019}}</ref>

Although the library's roots go back to the ''Charlotte Literary and Library Association,'' founded on January 16, 1891,<ref name="cmstory.org Web Site">{{cite web|title=Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County: A century of service | work=cmstory.org Web Site | url=http://www.cmstory.org/content/chapter-1-1891-1902 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925154945/http://www.cmstory.org/content/chapter-1-1891-1902 | archive-date=September 25, 2015 | publisher=Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County | access-date=September 25, 2015}}</ref> the state-chartered [[Carnegie Library]], which opened on the current North Tryon site of the Main Library, was the first non-subscription library opened to members of the public in the city of Charlotte. The philanthropist [[Andrew Carnegie]] donated $25,000 for a library building, on the condition that the city of Charlotte donate a site and $2,500 per year for books and salaries,<ref name="Public Library of Charlotte and Mec">{{cite web| title=Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County: A century of service | work=cmstory.org Web Site | url=http://www.cmstory.org/content/chapter-2-1903-carnegie-library | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925155413/http://www.cmstory.org/content/chapter-2-1903-Carnegie-Library | archive-date=September 25, 2015 | publisher=Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County | access-date=September 25, 2015}}</ref> and that the state grant a charter for the library. All conditions were met, and the Charlotte Carnegie Library opened in an imposing classical building on July 2, 1903.

The 1903 state charter also required that a library be opened for the disenfranchised African-American population of Charlotte. This was completed in 1905 with the opening of the ''Brevard Street Library for Negroes'', an independent library in Brooklyn, a historically black area of Charlotte, on the corner of Brevard and East Second Streets (now Martin Luther King Boulevard).<ref name="cmstory.org">{{cite web | title=Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County: A century of service | work=cmstory.org Web Site | url=http://www.cmstory.org/content/chapter-3-1905-brevard-street-library | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150925193944/http://www.cmstory.org/content/chapter-3-1905-brevard-street-library | archive-date=September 25, 2015 | publisher=Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County | access-date=September 25, 2015}}</ref> The Brevard Street Library was the first library for African Americans in the state of North Carolina,<ref name="cmstory.org"/> and some sources say in the southeast.<ref name="charmeck.org Web Site">{{cite web |url=http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/Planning/Whats+New/History+of+Second+Ward.htm |title=charmeck.org Web Site |access-date=September 25, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006074601/http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/Planning/Whats%2BNew/History%2Bof%2BSecond%2BWard.htm |archive-date=October 6, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The library was closed in 1961 when the Brooklyn neighborhood in Second Ward was redeveloped, but its role as a cultural center for African-Americans in Charlotte is continued by the Beatties Ford and West Boulevard branches of the library system, as well as by Charlotte's African-American Cultural Center.