McKenney House

McKenney House. . The McKenney House was originally constructed as a residence for Mayor John Dodson in 1859. It was the residence of Confederate General William Mahone after the Civil War. The property was purchased by William R. McKenney in early 1911. The McKenney family gave the house to the City in 1923 to be used as a public library in honor of the prominent lawyer. Opened in 1924, the library was segregated for decades with white patrons allowed to use the main level and African-Americans only allowed in the basement level. In February 1960, Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker and Rev. R.B. Williams, African-American ministers, led a major sit-in at the library in an effort to desegregate the main level. That event kicked off a major sit-in movement in Petersburg and led to the appointment of Rev. Walker, of Gilfield Baptist Church, as Executive Director of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Several months later, the library became one of the first Petersburg institutions to be integrated. . This historical marker is in Petersburg Virginia