The National Youth Library has been officially renamed in honour of an author who helped to organise the 1959 Theatre Boycott.

The plaque for the Florenz Webbe Maxwell Youth Library was unveiled yesterday to a room full of Mrs Maxwell’s loved ones and former colleagues.

Mrs Maxwell, who worked at the library for almost 30 years, said the recognition was “unbelievable”.

She added: “One of the things I’m aware of is that my name is there, but not the number of people who’ve helped me.

“So it’s not just me — it’s ‘we’.”

Mrs Maxwell was one of 18 young activists who made up the Progressive Group that organised the 1959 Theatre Boycott.

The boycott, which protested the segregation of cinemas on the island, became a catalyst for desegregation in Bermuda.

The identities of the Progressive Group went unknown until 40 years after the protest, during the production of the film When Voices Rise.

Mrs Maxwell said that renaming the library was a group effort first attempted by Lady Lully Gibbons, the widow of Sir David Gibbons, the former premier under the United Bermuda Party.

She explained that the Gibbons family owned the property before handing it to the Government, and that Lady Gibbons had tried to convince her husband to rename it in Mrs Maxwell’s honour.

She said: “Because of the fact that this was a Gibbons building and the library was a government property, he [Sir David Gibbons] was hesitant about it.

“So she kept pushing and pushing and pushing. She would call me, tell me it didn’t work and then try again.

“One day she called and she said, ‘Guess what? They decided yes’.”

Mrs Maxwell said that the idea went dark until Shirley Pearman, a former educator, proposed it again this year.

She added: “This is an example of, when I think about it, where Bermuda should be — we help each other, and there isn’t just one person doing something.

“I didn’t do it by myself; I got the building through Lady Gibbons and a number of people who helped me along the way.

“So it’s not just me, it’s we.”

Mrs Maxwell joined the Bermuda Library Service in 1969, when it was difficult for a Black Bermudian woman to become a librarian in a still-segregated system.

She worked as a manager and book assistant, eventually earning the title of head of the youth library in 1974.

After retiring in the late 1990s, Mrs Maxwell went on to write and publish several books.

She published The Spirit Baby and Other Bermudian Folktales in 2008, which documented several local legends.

In 2017, Mrs Maxwell published her first novel, Girlcott, which told the story of a teenage Black Bermudian girl during a time of segregation and social change.

The novel, which drew on her experiences during the 1959 Theatre Boycott, came second in the 2016 Burt Award for Caribbean Literature and was dubbed a “must-read” in Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine in 2020.

Diallo Rabain, the Minister of the Cabinet Office and Digital Innovation, said that renaming the library was about “passing a legacy to the next generation”.

He told Mrs Maxwell: “Florenz, you have given so much to this country.

“Your courage changed our course, your dedication provided generations of children a place to belong, and your stories continue to shape how we see ourselves.

“Your legacy is rooted in culture, courage and compassion, and that is why we are renaming this library to honour you.”

Mr Rabain added: “Let this place, the Florenz Webbe Maxwell Youth Library, be a beacon — not just of books and learning, but of what’s possible when one person lives a life of purpose.

“Mrs Maxwell, on behalf of Bermuda, we thank you, we honour you and we love you.”