The segregated public library in Memphis, Tennessee, was the site of the some of earliest successful activism against the regime of racial separation in the Bluff City. In 1958, Jesse Turner filed a lawsuit that ultimately led to the total desegregation of the library in 1961, and in 1960 a series of sit-ins led by students from LeMoyne College and Owen Junior College kicked off a city-wide campaign of direct action that led to the desegregation of most public facilities in the city by 1963.