Land Acknowledgement

Berkeley Public Library buildings are built on the territory of xučyun (Hooch-yoon), within the homeland of the Chochenyo (Cho-chen-yo) speaking Ohlone (Oh-low-nee) people. See the full statement.

Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch

Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch Library Exterior photo
Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch Library Exterior Photo
Exterior of the Tarea Hall Pittman South Library
Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch Library Interior photo of signage honoring Tarea Hall Pittman
Currently Open
Monday: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Tuesday: 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
Wednesday: 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
Thursday: 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Friday: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Saturday: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sunday: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

1901 Russell St.
Berkeley, CA 94703
United States

510-981-6260
Branch Desk

Branch Supervisor — Jill Tokutomi

Directions
AC Transit —

7 |  12 | 18 | 27 | F  Also accessible by BART at Ashby BART station. (Lines that run to/from Richmond)

Parking —

No parking lot; unmetered street parking is almost always available.

Map/Directions —

Follow this link to map and directions.

Upcoming at Tarea Hall Pittman South

  • Teen Hangout @THP South

    Manga style blue sky with clouds and two teens. Teen Hangout at THP South snacks, games, crafts. Wednesdays

    Wednesday, November 04 2026 2:00pm - 4:00pm

    Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch - South Teen Room

    6th-12th grade students: join us for snacks, games, movies, YouTube videos, and crafts each Wednesday after school in the THP South Teen Room.

  • Wellness Dance @THP South

    Dancer ChingChi Yu dancing with arms bent and smiling. She is wearing a black shirt and orange pants.

    Thursday, November 05 2026 2:00pm - 3:00pm

    Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch - THPS Branch Meeting Room

    Join us for a another series of this supportive and inclusive Community Wellness Dance Class

  • Read to a Dog @THPS

    Read to a Dog

    Thursday, November 05 2026 3:30pm - 4:30pm

    Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch - South Children's Room

    Read to a Dog is a great way for children to practice oral fluency, spend time with a friendly dog, and have fun. For Children ages 5 to 12.

  • MOCHA Creative Art Play @THPS - Fall 2026 Series

    MOCHA museum of children's art logo

    Thursday, November 05 2026 3:30pm - 5:00pm

    Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch - THPS Branch Meeting Room

    Join us every week for different projects with a Teaching Artist from the Museum of Children's Art!

  • In the Stax feat. Kayatta @THP South - A Function of The Break Room

    The break room repeated in a cube around a picture of music artist kayatta

    Thursday, November 05 2026 6:00pm - 7:00pm

    Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch

    The Black American Sound System is joining forces with the Berkeley Public Library to transform its branches into vibrant hubs of Black musical culture and community memory.

See all events

About Tarea Hall Pittman

Tarea (Ty) Hall Pittman was a civil rights worker, social worker, and community activist. Born in Bakersfield, California in 1903, she was the second of the five children of William Hall and Susie Pinkney. Her father, a farm laborer who moved from Alabama to Bakersfield in 1895, helped his brothers found the Bakersfield Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
 
Although Pittman experienced racial prejudice in Bakersfield, she did attend integrated public schools and in 1923 enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley.  Black students were not allowed to reside in campus housing leading Pittman to use personal connections to find accommodations.   Through these connections she also met William Pittman, a dental student whom she married in 1927.
 
Pittman became active in the NAACP and California State Association of Colored Women’s Clubs in the early 1930s.  She served as President of the Association from 1936 to 1938.  Her work with the Association included voter registration and funding orphanages for African American children.  In 1936 she organized west coast branches of the National Negro Congress and assisted in the creation of the Negro Education Council which provided research for and funded “Negroes in the News,” a radio program devoted to publicizing positive news about the African American community.  Pittman often hosted the programs as well and became a recognized radio personality across the U.S.
 
After dropping out of school to marry her husband and support his career, Pittman returned to college and received an A.B. in social service from San Francisco State College in 1939.  In 1941, Pittman, anticipating the large scale migration of blacks to the West Coast, began helping the first arrivals from the South integrate into Bay Area communities.  She also organized protests against Kaiser Shipyards and other war industries in 1941 and 1942 to force them to hire African Americans.
 
Pittman, always an active clubwoman, served as President of the California Council of Negro Women from 1948 to 1951.  She also continued her civil rights work, helping to desegregate the Oakland Fire Department in 1952 and working on behalf of the NAACP, helping to lobby successfully for the California Fair Employment Practice (FEP) bill which was signed into law in 1959 by Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown. Partly because of this success Pittman served as Director of the West Coast Region of the NAACP from 1961 to 1965.  During her tenure, she worked to get FEP laws passed in Arizona, Alaska, and Nevada.
 
Pittman retired from the NAACP in 1970 but continued to broadcast the “Negroes in the News” radio program into the late 1970s. After protracted illness, she passed away on July 31, 1991, having been an integral part of the civil rights and social welfare movements in the Bay Area and the West Coast for much of the 20th Century. - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aaw/pittman-tarea-hall-1903-1991#sthash.F75xVJ11.dpuf