Julia Boyer Reinstein Library

One of our FAVORITE true crimes stories has been pick for the online book club: Death in the City of Light by David King. It involves a Serial Killer, Nazis, a chase, and look behind the madness. BUT it also looks into how society can overlook the signs of evil to focus on their own issues and why that is bad. Check it out here: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1128022

Our experts eagerly await!

Mary Morris Burnett Talbert was born in 1866 in Oberlin, Ohio and later attended Oberlin College where she was the only African American woman in her graduating... class of 1886. Following her education, Talbert was hired as a teacher and promoted to assistant principal and later principal in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1891 she married Buffalonian William Talbert and moved to the city. At that time women were not allowed to be teachers while married, so she gave up her occupation and moved to Buffalo in 1891. However, she did not sit idly as a housewife but rather threw herself into the Michigan Street Baptist Church and various types of activism. Over the next 35 years, she would become the best-known colored woman in the United States." In 1899, Talbert was a founding member of the Phyllis Wheatley Club of Buffalo. Phyllis Wheatley Clubs were organizations formed by African American women to champion community improvements as reflected in their motto "Lifting as We Climb." In 1905, the club operated a settlement house and later invited the NAACP to organize in Buffalo. The club was also responsible for social programs that included feeding the hungry, literacy, and childhood education. The group was also responsible for raising the funds to provide a monthly pension for Harriet Tubman. In 1905 the Talbert's opened up their home to the founders of the Niagara Movement, a civil rights organization that was vehemently opposed to racial segregation and disenfranchisement. It was in their Buffalo home that W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter, founders of the movement, drew up the principles and made plans to hold the meeting across the Niagara River in Fort Erie, Ontario. While the Niagara Movement only lasted a few short years, it would have lasting repercussions in American and Civil Rights histories as it laid the foundation for the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1916, Talbert was elected as the sixth President of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. She was elected to a second two-year term as President of that organization in 1918. Through this organization, Talbert was able to save and preserve Fredrick Douglass’s home in Anacostia in Washington D.C. Mary B. Talbert died in 1923. She is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery. Photo of Mary Talbert Courtesy of The Champion Magazine, 1916. Subscribe to our e-newsletter to get all the #VibrantLivesVibrantStories articles. #buffalohistory #BlackHistoryMonth

What do you love about the library? #LibraryLoversMonth #LibraryLove #LibraryLife #LibraryBooksWhat do you love about the library? #LibraryLoversMonth #LibraryLove #LibraryLife #LibraryBooks

Save the date for a virtual author talk with Buffalo native Willie Brown in honor of Black History Month on Wednesday, February 17 at 12:30 p.m. He will discuss his book United States Colored Troop Importance in the Civil War. Free via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83203130106.

Cheektowaga Library Covid-19 Procedures: Yellow: Entry into Library, Check out Materials, Computer usage and drop box. Orange: No library entry, Curbside Service, No Computers, and Drop box open. Red: No Library Entry, No checkouts, no computers, and drop box open

Join us on Tuesday, December 15 at 9:00 am For Wake up With Watson (and Sherlock) Holiday Tails (or Tales!). Live on Zoom!... Miss Kathy (Watson and Sherlock's favorite Librarian) will read stories, sing and show how to make a craft! Fun for the family! Zoom meeting ID: 986 0027 7974 Password: books

Happy Hanukkah! Grab our book bundle on the Festival of Lights today!

We miss our Story Time kids so much! Today we will be giving away either baby or toddler reading bags. These were given to us by NYS Ready to Read program. One bag per car. While supplies last. There are no phone reserves for these items.

3D Christmas Tree Craft! Pick up yours today!

We received 30 crafts from Explore and More, come on over and grab your Paper Gingerbread House!