named in honor of the first Carnegie Library librarian, opened in 1909 on the corner of Luckie Street and Merritts Avenue in Northwest Atlanta. Many new branch libraries followed in the years to come. The Ragsdale branch, located in Oakland City, opened in 1912, and in 1913 the Uncle Remus Branch opened in the West End home of Joel Chandler Harris. Over the next century the library system has expanded from four branches in 1913 to the 34 branches operating today. By 1924 the library system had eight branches throughout the city, and by 1967 the system had 19 branches. City–county relationship In the first decades of the library system service was maintained for Atlanta residents only, and as a result Fulton County was left without library service. Using Works Progress Administration and city funds, the City of Atlanta and the Fulton County Board of Commissioners signed a contract in 1935 to provide library coverage throughout the county. In 1982, however, Georgia passed a constitutional amendment that allowed the city to transfer control of the system to the county, and in 1983 the system was turned over the county control. To reflect the change in control the system was renamed the Atlanta–Fulton Public Library System. Black Atlantans and the public library When the Carnegie Library opened in 1902, blacks were excluded from the library. Activist W. E. B. Du Bois led an unsuccessful campaign for black representation and equal use of the library, or at the very least a branch library for blacks, but the library board rebuffed his efforts. Carnegie had offered funds for a black branch library, but the library system did not use the money until 1921 when Tommie Dora Barker, the Director of the Carnegie Library School, opened the Auburn Avenue Branch Library, the first branch library for blacks, in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood. During segregation two other libraries were opened for the use of blacks. In 1959, Irene Dobbs Jackson, the mother of future Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson requested a library card for the central library. After days of public furor, the library board voted to allow blacks full access to the library on 19 May 1959. Between 1966 and 1973 the library staff was desegregated. 2008 bond referendum In 2008 Fulton County voters approved a $275 million library bond referendum, which provides money for renovation and construction of library facilities in Fulton County. The