View Park’s Bebe Moore Campbell Library Opens

View Park’s Bebe Moore Campbell Library is open for business following a $1.38 million renovation. The library’s new name honors Campbell, the late best-selling novelist, advocate for the mentally ill, and distinguished View Park resident.

“Bebe Moore Campbell was an accomplished journalist and author who, through her writing, engaged in tireless and undaunted efforts to confront racism and challenge the stigma associated with mental illness,” said Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas who attended the ribbon cutting two years after authoring a motion to change the name of the library. “Her legacy of raising awareness for important social issues certainly will not be forgotten.”

Ms. Campbell authored four New York Times bestsellers: Brothers and Sisters, Singing in the Come Back Choir, What You Owe Me, and 72 Hour Hold. She also wrote the Los Angeles Times bestseller and New York Times notable book of the year, Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine, for which she won an Image Award for literature from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Her byline has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Essence, Ebony, Black Enterprise, and many other publications.

Ms. Campbell was also the co-founder of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)-Inglewood, now known as NAMI Urban Los Angeles.

She died in 2006 of complications from brain cancer. She was 56.