Locality
Roanoke
Occupation
Librarian
Biography
Virginia Young Lee attended segregated public schools while growing up in Roanoke. She earned a degree in library science in 1926 from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (now Hampton University). In 1928 she was named librarian of Roanoke's Gainsboro Library, the only library open to African Americans in the city. Lee began building a collection of books and other materials related to African American history, literature and culture to foster Black pride and to inform white residents of the past and present accomplishments of African Americans. With no budget, she solicited books from her community and from such leading figures as poet Langston Hughes and civil rights advocate Mary M. Bethune. In the 1940s, white city officials ordered Lee to remove the Black history collection or lose her job, but she safeguarded the books in the library's basement and continued to provide them secretly to patrons.
At the Gainsboro Library, Lee organized a reading club that later worked to secure funding for a new building to replace the library's original single room in the YMCA. She convinced a church to donate land and she designed the new library, which opened in 1942. During her 43-year tenure, Lee encouraged generations of children to become lifelong readers. She trained young women in library work, sometimes paying them out of her own pocket. Lee retired in 1971 and in 1982 the city of Roanoke named the collection in her honor. A state historic marker recognizing Lee's work and the importance of Gainsboro Library to Roanoke's Black community was dedicated in 2023.
Nominated by Sonya Coleman.
2025 Strong Men & Women in Virginia History honoree, Library of Virginia and Dominion Energy.
Watch the recorded acceptance remarks by Gainsboro Library Branch Manager Megan Mizak on behalf of Virginia Young Lee's family shown at the Dominion Energy reception honoring the 2025 Strong Men & Women in Virginia History honorees on February 6, 2025.
At the Gainsboro Library, Lee organized a reading club that later worked to secure funding for a new building to replace the library's original single room in the YMCA. She convinced a church to donate land and she designed the new library, which opened in 1942. During her 43-year tenure, Lee encouraged generations of children to become lifelong readers. She trained young women in library work, sometimes paying them out of her own pocket. Lee retired in 1971 and in 1982 the city of Roanoke named the collection in her honor. A state historic marker recognizing Lee's work and the importance of Gainsboro Library to Roanoke's Black community was dedicated in 2023.
Nominated by Sonya Coleman.
2025 Strong Men & Women in Virginia History honoree, Library of Virginia and Dominion Energy.
Watch the recorded acceptance remarks by Gainsboro Library Branch Manager Megan Mizak on behalf of Virginia Young Lee's family shown at the Dominion Energy reception honoring the 2025 Strong Men & Women in Virginia History honorees on February 6, 2025.
File Citation(s)
Photograph courtesy Roanoke Public Library, Gainsboro Branch.