Katie Hart was a teacher supervisor in 1931 when she started a small library for African Americans in Hertford County. In 1938. She began a bookmobile service, noted in some sources to be the first in the United States to be owned by an African American.

Her bookmobile served Hertford and Gates counties, and her books were available to all people. The Hertford County Colored Public Library ran from 1938 to 1969. It was the only library for African Americans in northeastern North Carolina during the Jim Crow era. Katie retired in 1969, when her library was integrated with the white library the Albemarle Regional Library.

Image credit: The Cultivator Bookstore