🏢 Dallas Public Library — Dallas, Texas

Paul Laurence Dunbar Lancaster-Kiest Branch Library

An Oak Cliff branch that carries forward the name of Dallas's first library for the African-American community, honoring poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.

📖 About Paul Laurence Dunbar Lancaster-Kiest Branch Library

The Paul Laurence Dunbar Lancaster-Kiest Branch Library stands at 2008 East Kiest Blvd. in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas. It opened February 8, 1964 as the South Oak Cliff Branch, was renamed the Lancaster-Kiest Branch in April 1968, and later took on the Paul Laurence Dunbar name to preserve a piece of Dallas history. That name traces back to the original Dunbar Branch, which opened in June 1931 as the first library in Dallas to welcome and serve the African-American community, in the North Dallas/Freedman's Town neighborhood; that branch closed in 1959 after Central Expressway construction dispersed the surrounding community. The libraries honor Paul Laurence Dunbar, the pioneering African-American poet whose dialect and standard verse made him one of the first Black writers to gain national acclaim.

⭐ What makes this branch special

• Carries the name of Dallas's first African-American library (Dunbar, opened 1931)
• Named for pioneering African-American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar
• Opened 1964 as the South Oak Cliff Branch, renamed over the decades
• Serves the Oak Cliff community along East Kiest Blvd.

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