Black Heritage Tour: #1, Arizona Heritage Center Library

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From the tour guide:

1. The tour begins at the Arizona Heritage Center Library, at Park Avenue and 949 E. Second Street. There are countless clippings of black history to be found there. Consult Appendix A for more details. They also have many photos that relate the history. Visit the gift shop (where Mr. Harris' book about blacks in Arizona can be purchased).

This was, of course, easy to find -- since it's the Arizona Historical Society's museum in Tucson. Parking was hard to wrangle, though, since it's right next to the university.

I went in to the research library and spoke to one of the librarians there. They didn't have a copy of Gloria Smith's book -- nor had ever heard of it. The librarian was puzzled by the term "Arizona Heritage Center Library," as he'd never heard it referred to as that. But we spent some time looking through some old heritage tours -- all done by white settlers, apparently -- and older clippings just to see if we could find anything interesting.

It's a very interesting place; I've never been in a historical research library before -- the type that's used by scholars and researchers, not just nosy photographer/game designer types. Lockers are provided for storing your bags -- required! -- and all notes must be taken on green paper that they supply. Even photocopies are on green paper. You have to sign in and out to get access to anything, and they watch you very carefully while you're examining it.

I'll probably go back there some time when I have more time to kill.

Some more pictures of the museum:

The man in the statue is John Greenway, a former "Rough Rider" with Teddy Roosevelt and a copper millionaire in Arizona.

If you ask me, they should have put up a statue of his wife, Isabella Greenway:

In Tucson, the energetic Isabella ran an airline, worked with disabled veterans, and founded the world-famous Arizona Inn. When the Great Depression brought hard times, Eleanor Roosevelt recruited Isabella to work for the Democratic Party. Isabella played a decisive role in Franklin Roosevelt's nomination to the presidency in 1932; the New York Times called her "the most-talked-of woman at the National Democratic Convention." She was elected to Congress as Arizona's only US Representative, and again drew national media attention when she challenged FDR for not being sufficiently progressive.

More on Isabella here and here.

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