Selma Burke, an African American figurative sculptor, was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance movement of the 1920s and 1930s. One of her most notable works was a bas-relief of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which is speculated to have inspired the relief of him on the modern U.S. dime. Selma used her work to shape and improve her community. One of the most poignant examples of this is when she leveraged her growing acclaim to desegregate the public library of her hometown, Mooresville, NC, thereby opening the library to Black children. She achieved this by donating a portrait bust of a local doctor, with the condition that the ban be removed. The city conceded.