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Excelsior Library Foundation Meet the Friends of Excelsior Library Foundation Our mission Opened in a Guthrie home in 1908 the Excelsior Library is thought to be the first AfricanAmerican library in Oklahoma and the entire Southwest. For nearly 40 years this humble facility served as an educational hub for the AfricanAmerican community logging nearly 1000 visitors a month. In 1954 a bond issue passed leading to the construction of a proper library. After the implementation of desegregation a few years later this new building served as an event and meeting space eventually housing the Guthrie Police Department temporarily in the mid1990s.