City Council changes name of Emmet O'Neal Public Library

The Mountain Brook City Council — at its regular meeting for July 13 — voted unanimously to pass a resolution changing the name of the Emmet O’Neal Public Library in Crestline Village to the O’Neal Library.

In recent weeks, it has been widely discussed that Emmet O’Neal, a Florence native who was elected governor of Alabama in 1910 and died in Birmingham in 1922, was an ardent white supremacist.

He was a delegate to the 1901 Alabama Constitutional Convention and — in a speech that year to the Democratic State Executive Committee  — said that the “paramount purpose of the constitutional convention is to lay deep and strong and permanent in the fundamental law of the State the foundation of white supremacy forever in Alabama,” according to bhamwiki.com.

The resolution changes the name in order to honor the other members of the O’Neal family who have long supported the library.

The Council’s action follows a resolution adopted by the five-member library board.

“Recent events in our state and country have turned our attention to opportunities for change and improvement and have challenged us to reconsider some long-held symbols,” the board’s resolution states.

The board said it was asked to change the name of the facility because of Emmet O’Neal’s role in “perpetuating segregation” in Alabama.

The board said that it has discussed the matter with the O’Neal family and has their support in changing the name of the facility.

The Elizabeth and Kirkman O'Neal Foundation donated a library building to the city of Mountain Brook in 1965. The O'Neal family also helped fund the new library that was built in 2002, according to the Council’s resolution.

The resolution was brought to the council on Monday by Councilor Lloyd Shelton, who serves as the Council's liaison to the Emmet O'Neal Library Board.