Faith Cabin Libraries were a system of libraries created in South Carolina and Georgia providing library services to Black Americans who were not allowed to use public libraries because of segregation laws.
This library system was created in the 1930s and 1940s by Willie Lee Buffington, a White mill worker, and his childhood friend, a Black teacher Euriah Simpkins.Simpkins had invited Buffington to the opening of a Saluda County school for Black students. Buffington, surprised and upset by the lack of books in the school, began a letter-writing campaign to area churches soliciting book donations for his library project. However, there were too many books for the school itself, so Buffington and Simpkins decided to build a library themselves.
The first library–the Lizze Koon unit after Buffington’s mother–a small free-standing log cabin building, opened in 1932 in Saluda County. It was 18 feet by 22 feet with a rock chimney. The building’s furniture was barrels for chairs and kerosene lamps for illumination. At the library’s opening, a community member said “we didn’t have money, all we had was faith” which lent a name to both the building and the movement as Faith Cabin Libraries