“…Then the hand seeks other hands to help, A community of hands to help-thus the dream becomes not one man’s dream alone, But a community dream…. not my dream alone, but our dream.” Freedom's Plow by Langston Hughes

Opening of the Langston Hughes Cultural Center's First Location. Queens Public Library Director Harold Tucker handing the key to Center Director Tyrone Bryant April, 1969. Betty Shabazz is in the background in sunglasses, and Carlton Yearwood from the local Black Panther Party chapter is at far right - The Black Panther Party was instrumental with opening of the library. The Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center was founded in 1969. Community activism by the Library Action Committee (LAC) of East Elmhurst and Corona galvanized the project to serve as a source of Black information and culture intended to educate and support the area’s predominantly African-American population. Until 1987, the Langston Hughes Library was operated by the LAC Board of Directors (who are still hard at work today), under the auspices of Queens Public Library. Staffing was made up of community residents with a full time librarian on loan from Queens Public Library.

The libraries first home at 102-09 Northern Boulevard was a former Woolworth’s Department Store - the site of a civil rights struggle to break the color barrier for hiring in Queens. It was named after Langston Hughes the Black American poet, social activist, novelist, and playwright, known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance, who had passed away two years earlier in 1967.

Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Center Director Tyrone Bryant and Helen Marshall at the Langston Hughes Community Library & Cultural Center in 1974.

A summer art program at the Langston Hughes Library and Cultural Center in 1973.

Reading at the Langston Hughes Library and Cultural Center.

Library Director Andrew Jackson & Grace Lawrence, chair of the Library Action Committee of Corona-East Elmhurst ca. 1987.

Photo shows the last days at the original location of the Langston Hughes Library in early 1999, before relocating to the current building.

In 1997 ground was broken for a new 24,000 sq. ft. building to house the library and cultural center at 100-01 Northern Boulevard, shown here near completion in 1999.

Opening Day Ceremonies at the new Langston Hughes Library building in 1999.

The Langston Hughes Community Library is home to The Black Heritage Reference Center of Queens County, which houses New York City’s largest circulating Black heritage reading collection, with approximately 40,000 volumes of material about and related to Black culture. The Center contains books, periodicals, theses and dissertations, databases, videos, DVDs, and music about the black experience, along with an art collection of prints, posters, paintings, photographs, African textiles, kente cloth, and African sculpture.

Langston Hughes Library genealogy for families of African Heritage workshop with Sharon Wilkins, Deputy Borough Historian of Manhattan, hosted by curator Christine Zarett on June 17, 2019. This photo show the Black Heritage Reading Room at Langston Hughes.

Portrait of former Executive Director of the Langston Hughes Community Library Andrew Jackson (Sekou Molefi Baako), pictured in 2006 on the steps in front of library, autographing a newly published book for youth edited by Patrick M. Oliver, in which his essay, "If You Want to Know the Secrets of the World, Read a Book!" was included. You can listen to him discuss his 41 year career at the libarary here.

Portrait of the Langston Hughes Library staff from 2019. Looking to the future current Executive Director at Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center Shakira Smalls says: "I look forward to continuing to embrace the community outside our doors, while celebrating the legacy of the library’s foundation. I am grateful to carry the torch and stand on the shoulders of the founders whose commitment illustrates the significance of Langston Hughes’ Freedom Plow. It is my vision to ensure the community has a safe space to learn, explore and grow."