George Moses Horton Branch of the Forsyth County Public Library (Winston-Salem, North Carolina)

The George Moses Horton Branch of the Forsyth County Public Library was established in 1927 inside the Chestnut Street YWCA in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Mary Hairston was the library's first manager. Later, Nell Brooks Wright Alford served as branch librarian from 1941 until 1964. On November 14, 1954, the library received its own building and was renamed the East Winston Branch Library. L. Quincy Mumford, then the Librarian of Congress, was the keynote speaker at the new building's dedication ceremony. The East Winston Branch was also a recipient of the John Cotton Dana Publicity Award from the Wilson Library Bulletin. The library's named was changed again in 2004 to the Malloy/Jordan East Winston Heritage Center Library.     

Update 12/11/2012:
Nells Brooks Wright Alford served on the editorial board of the Library Service Review, the bulletin of the North Carolina Negro Library Association.

Mary Hairston served as the chair of the committee responsible for compiling a handbook for the North Carolina Negro Library Association (the handbook was published in 1940).

See: Lee, Mollie Huston. "Development of Negro Libraries in North Carolina." North Carolina Libraries 3.2 (1944): 1-3, 7. Print. ; Marshall, Albert P. "North Carolina Negro Library Association." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 63-68. Print. ; Library Service Review 1.1 (1948); Library Service Review 1.2 (1948).

See related posts:
North Carolina Negro Library Association and Annette Hoage Phinazee: Dean, Professor, Author, and Librarian.


Sources: Speller, Benjamin F. and James R. Jarrell. "Profiles of Pioneers: Selected North Carolina Black Librarians." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. 76. Print. ; "History." Eliminating Racism, Empowering Women: YWCA Winston-Salem. YWCA Winston-Salem, n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. ; Grant, George, comp. "Malloy/Jordan East Winston Heritage Center Library - Forsyth County Library." In Honor of ... : Libraries Named for African Americans. Jonesboro: Grant House Publishers, 2011. 156. Print. ; Balance, Paul S., Mary C. Wiley, Jessie M. Stroup, and Mae K. Tillman. First Fifty Years of Public Library Service in Winston-Salem, 1906-1956. [Winston-Salem]: Public Library of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, North Carolina, 1956. 14, 16-17, 19-20, 27-28, 30, 32-33, 37-41. Print. ; Carnegie Public Library of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. Annual Report, July 1, 1949-June 30, 1950. Winston-Salem: Carnegie Public Library of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, 1950. 5-8, 10-11, 13-15. Print. ; Dedication and Open House: East Winston Branch, Public Library of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, Winston-Salem, N.C.: Sunday, November 14, 1954. Program. [Winston-Salem: Public Library of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, North Carolina, 1954]. Print. ;  Franklin, Hardy R. "The Black Public Librarian in the Southeast." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. 214, 218-219. Print.

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Effie Lee Morris: First African American President of the Public Library Association

Effie Lee Morris was Children’s Services Coordinator at the San Francisco Public Library where she worked from 1963 until 1977. Ms. Morris was also the chair of the Coretta Scott King Task Force and was the first African American to serve as president of the Public Library Association (1971-1972).In addition, Ms. Morrison was a librarian at the Cleveland Public Library (1946-1955) and the New York Public Library (1955-1963). She passed away at the age of 88 on November 10, 2009.

Sources: "Speakable Volumes." Jet 20.5 (1961): 27. Print. ; Smith, Henrietta M. "The Coretta Scott King Award - Its History." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 312, 314. Print. ; "Effie Lee Morris: Retired Children's Services Coordinator, San Francisco Public Library." African American Librarians in the Far West: Pioneers and Trailblazers. Ed. Binnie Tate Wilkin. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2006. 148-161. Print. ; Orange, Satia Marshall. "Pay It Forward for Effie Lee Morris." The Black Caucus of the American Library Association Newsletter 39.1 (2010): 5-6. Print. ; Staino, Rocco. "Effie Lee Morris, Advocate of Library Services to Children, Dies at 88." Schoollibraryjournal.com. School Library Journal, 17 Nov. 2009. Web. 18 Dec. 2010. ; "PLA Past Presidents." Public Library Association. Public Library Association, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2011. ; Segall, Grant. "Effie Lee Morris Jones Pioneered Library Services for Blind and Minority Children." Cleveland.com. Cleveland Live, Inc., 18 Dec. 2009. Web. 17 Dec. 2011. ; Zalusky, Steve. "Effie Lee Morris Honored for Her Work As A Librarian, Advocate for Underserved Children, and the Visual Impaired." ALA News. American Library Association, 15 June 2010. Web. 17 Dec. 2011. ; Pelosi, Nancy. "Statement on Effie Lee Morris." Congressional Record 156.87 (2010): E1063. Print.

  

Robert Hayden: The First African American Poet Laureate of the United States

Robert Hayden was the first African American to be appointed by the Library of Congress to serve as the Consultant in Poetry (this position is now called Poet Laureate). He held this position from 1976-1978. Mr. Hayden was a professor of English at the University of Michigan. Mr. Hayden passed away in 1980.

Sources: "Library of Congress Gets 1st Black Poetry Consultant." Jet 49.24 (1976): 31. Print. ; Armenti, Peter, comp. "United States Poet Laureate: A Guide to Online Resources." Web Guides. Library of Congress, 17 Aug. 2010. Web. 1 Jan. 2011. ; "Robert E. Hayden, 66, Noted Poet-Teacher Dies." Jet 58.1 (1980): 18. Print. ; "Poet Robert Hayden Named Bingham Professor." Jet 34.20 (1968): 27. Print. ; "Ebony's Black Achievers: Recipients and Honorees." Jet 55.15 (1978): 52. Print. ; McCalope, Michelle. "Blacks Furious Over Exclusion from 'Great Books of  the Western World." Jet 79.6 (1990): 18. Print. ; "Anthology Features Negro Poetry Since Johnson." Jet 24.20 (1963): 50. Print. ; "National Headliners." Jet 57.9 (1977): 13. Print. ; Scarupa, Harriet Jackson. "Robert Hayden, Poet Laureate." Ebony 33.3 (1978): 78-80, 82-83. Print. ; "Ebony Book Shelf." Ebony 31.2 (1975): 32. Print. ; "Ebony Book Shelf." Ebony 35.12 (1979): 25. Print. ; "1980 Highlights in Pictures." Ebony 36.3 (1981): 107. Print. ; Hatcher, John. From the Auroral Darkness: The Life and Poetry of Robert Hayden. Oxford: G. Ronald, 1984. Print.

Myrtle Hall Branch of the Carnegie Public Library (Clarksdale, Mississippi)

The Myrtle Hall Branch of the Carnegie Public Library (Clarksdale, Mississippi) was opened on May 4, 1930. The branch provided library services to the African American residents of Clarksdale, Mississippi. At the time of its construction, the Myrtle Hall Branch was the only library in the state built with local tax money (total construction cost was $3,200 -- $2,100 came from the City of Clarksdale ; $1,100 from noted African American leaders in the community; the land was donated by the school board). In 1979, the branch became the home of the Delta Blues Museum. When the building was closed in the 1980s, the museum was moved to the second floor of the main branch.

Note: The main branch, the Carnegie Public Library, was built in 1914 with a grant of $10,000 from Andrew Carnegie. The library is still in operation and is still located at the address where it was built, 114 Delta Avenue, Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Update 12/04/2012:
In 1999, the Delta Blues Museum moved into its own building at 1 Blues Alley, Clarksdale, Mississippi. See:

Coen, Chere'. "Carnegie Public Library, Clarksdale, MS: Downtown Building Created in 1914." VisitSouth.com 8 Nov. 2011:n.pag. Web. 4 Dec. 2012.

Delta Blues Newsletter Mar. 2011: 3. Pdf.

Update 2/28/2013:

The following resources contain additional information about the Myrtle Hall Branch of the Carnegie Public Library (Clarksdale, Mississippi):

McAllister, Dorothy. "Library Service to the Colored Race." Mississippi Library News 17.2 (1953):112-113, 116-117.Print.

Gleason, Eliza Atkins. The Southern Negro and the Public Library. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1941. 76. Print.


Sources: "Clarksdale, Mississippi, Carnegie Library." Library Journal 55.14 (1930): 667. Print. ; Welly, Emily. "Building a Blues Legacy: Collection Gives Insight into Delta Blues Museum Founder." ILoveLibraries.org. American Library Association, 2011. Web. 28 Jan. 2011. ; Battles, David M. The History of Public Library Access for African Americans in the South or, Leaving Behind the Plow. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2009. 70. Print. ; McMillen, Neil R. Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1989. 11. Print.

Arna Wendell Bontemps: Fisk University Librarian, Poet, and Author

Arna W. Bontemps (1902-1973), a native of Alexandria, Louisiana, was the first African American to serve as University Librarian for Fisk University (1943-1965). Mr. Bontemps, a 1943 graduate of the University of Chicago Library School, was also an author, poet, and a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He passed away in 1973.

See related post: Marcus Bruce Christian (1900-1976), Louisiana Librarian

Sources: "The Negro Writer in the United States: University of  California at Berkley Plays Host to Five-Day Seminar on Negro Literature." Ebony 20.1 (1964): 126, 131-132, 134. Print. ; Jordan, Casper Leroy, and Josey, E.J. "A Chronology of Events in Black Librarianship." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 7. Print. ; "Arna Bontemps Named to Library Board." Jet 4.9 (1953): 51. Print. ; "Fisk's Famed Librarian, Bontemps, Moves Out of Post." Jet 28.13 (1965): 25. Print. ; "Author Arna Bontemps Dies Reading Rosary at Wake of Meharry Physician's Wife." Jet 44.13 (1973): 44. Print. ; Campbell, Dorothy Wilson. "Curators of African American Collections." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. 191. Print. ; Shockley, Ann Allen. "Special Collections, Fisk University Library." Library Quarterly 58.2 (1988): 151, 154. Print. ; Sinnette, Elinor D. V.  Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Black Bibliophile & Collector: A Biography. New York: New York Public Library, 1989. 115, 129. Print. ; Jones, Kirkland C. Renaissance Man from Louisiana: A Biography of Arna Wendell Bontemps. Westport: Greenwood, 1992. Print. ; Jefferson, Julius C. “The Black Male Librarian: An Endangered Species.” The National Diversity in Libraries Conference. Louisville Marriott Downtown, Louisville, KY. 3 Oct. 2008. Pdf.


Update 09/13/2012:

An additional article on Arna Wendell Bontemps:

Thompson, John Downing. "African Americans and Education: A Study of Arna Bontemps."  Syracuse University Library Associates Courier 33, [paper 342] (2001): 77-99. Print.

Update 11/17/2015:

Arna Wendell Bontemps is mentioned in a piece I wrote on Fisk University:

Fenton, Michele. "Fisk University." African American Leadership: A Concise Reference Guide. Ed. Tyson King-Meadows. [Santa Barbara, CA]: Mission Bell Media, 2015. 93-94. Print.

Hallie Beachem Brooks: Librarian, Professor, and Indiana Native

Hallie Beachem Brooks (1907-1985) was a professor of library science at the Atlanta University Library School from 1942-1977. In 1964, she was appointed chairman of the Asia Foundation Grants Committee of the American Library Association. The Georgia Library Association awarded Ms. Brooks the Nix-Jones Award in 1979. In addition, Ms. Brooks was a librarian at the High School of Spelman College, an instructor in the Negro Teacher-Librarian Project, and the director of the Carnegie Corporation Field Service Program for Negro School Libraries.

Born in 1907, Ms. Brooks was a native of West Baden, Indiana, and worked as a library assistant and later a librarian at the Paul Laurence Dunbar Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library from 1922-1930. She received her librarian's certificate from the Indiana Public Library Commission Summer School for Librarians in 1924, and her Master of Library Science (MLS) from the University of Chicago in 1947. Ms. Brooks was a graduate of Shortridge High School in Indianapolis and attended Butler University (also in Indianapolis). She passed away in 1985.

See related posts: ALA History: 1928 Annual Conference of the American Library Association, West Baden, Indiana ; Lillian Sunshine Haydon Childress Hall: Pioneer in the History of Library Service to African Americans in Indiana ; and The Flanner Guild Deposit Station, the Paul Laurence Dunbar Branch, the Crispus Attucks Branch, and the George Washington Carver Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library (Indianapolis, Indiana).

Update 12/17/2012:

Hallie Beachem Brooks was one of several African American attendees at the 1928 American Library Association Annual Conference in West Baden, Indiana. One of the other attendees, Lillian Haydon Childress Hall, was the earliest known African American to receive a library science education in the state of Indiana. Hall was Ms. Brooks' supervisor, mentor, and friend when they worked together at the Indianapolis Public Library in the 1920s. Both women were graduates of the Indiana Public Library Commission Summer School for Librarians.

Update 5/18/2014:

Hallie Beachem Brooks is briefly mentioned in an I wrote an article on Lillian Haydon Childress Hall. The article was featured in the latest issue of Indiana Libraries (v. 33, no. 1). The link is below:

Fenton, Michele T. "Stepping Out on Faith: Lillian Haydon Childress Hall, Pioneer Black Librarian." Indiana Libraries 33.1 (2014): 5-11. Print."

Sources: Woodson, Almeta Gould. "Fifty Years of Service: A Chronological History of the School of Library Service Atlanta University, 1941-1979; the School of Library and Information Studies Atlanta University, 1979-1989; the School of Library and Information Studies, Clark Atlanta University, 1989-1991." Georgia Librarian 28.3 (1991): 71-73, 76-78. Print. ; "Summer School Students Accepted for 1924." Library Occurrent 7.3 (1924): 69. Print. ; "News of Indiana Libraries." Library Occurrent 8.3 (1927): 122. Print. ; "Gives Tea for Mr. Cullen." Indianapolis Recorder 5 Mar. 1927: 5. Print. ; " Indianapolis Girls Leave for Positions in South." Indianapolis Recorder 9 Sept. 1930: 6. Print. ; LeMon, Lillian M. "Indiana News." Chicago Defender 2 Jan. 1932: 11 . Print. ; "Atlanta U. Professor Heads Asian Study Fund." Jet 27.8 (1964): 20. Print. ; Jones, Reinette. Library Service to African Americans in Kentucky from the Reconstruction Era to the 1960s. Jefferson: McFarland, 2002. 116. Print. ; "Georgia Library Association Award Winners." Georgia Library Association. Georgia Library Association, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2010. ; Miller, Rosalind. "One Georgia Librarian: Hallie Beachem Brooks Remembers -1930 to 1977." Georgia Librarian 14.2 (1977): 29-38. Print. ; Totten, Herman L. "Southeastern Black Educators." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscence, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library, 1980. 200-201. Print. ; McPheeters, Annie L. Library Service in Black and White: Some Personal Recollections, 1921-1980. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1988. 11. Print. ; "Georgia Library Association Award Winners." Georgia Library Association Handbook, Appendices. 2003 rev. Rex: GLA, 2003. 58. Print.

                                                                      

The Howard Branch of the Chattanooga Public Library (Chattanooga, Tennessee)

The Howard Branch of the Chattanooga Public Library was established in 1913 to serve the African American citizens of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Rev. Thomas Fountain Blue of the Colored Branches of the Louisville Free Public Library gave an address at the branch's opening ceremony held on October 11, 1913. The Howard Branch was later renamed the South Chattanooga Branch. Kate Brown and Ola Boatner served as librarians at the branch. The Chattanooga Public Library integrated its library facilities in 1954.

See related posts: The Negro Branch of the Carnegie Library of Nashville (Nashville, Tennessee) ; The Colored School Department of the Cossitt Library (Memphis, Tennessee); and The Free Colored Carnegie Branch of the Lawson McGhee Library (Knoxville, Tennessee).

Sources: Miller, Ernest I. "Library Service for Negroes in Tennessee." Journal of Negro Education 10.4 (1941): 636-637. Print. ; Hudson, Earline H. "Library Service to Blacks and Black Librarians in Tennessee." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L . Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. 104-107, 110-111. Print.

Annette Hoage Phinazee: Dean, Professor, Author, and Librarian

Annette Hoage Phinazee (1920-1983), a 1939 graduate of Fisk University, was the first African American to earn a PhD in library science from Columbia University (she received her degree in 1961). In addition, she was a professor and instructor at the Atlanta University Library School in Atlanta, Georgia (1946-1957, 1963-1969) [note: Atlanta University is now Clark-Atlanta University]; once served as dean of the North Carolina Central University School of Library Science (1970-1983); and was the first African American president of the North Carolina Library Association.

A native of Orangeburg, South Carolina, Ms. Phinazee was born Alethia Annette Lewis in 1920 and was the daughter of William C. and Alethia Lewis. She was the widow of George L. Hoage. She later married Joseph Phinazee (1916-1991), a native of Georgia, World War II veteran, and former employee of the Biology Department of North Carolina Central University.

After graduating from Fisk University, Ms. Phinazee earned a Bachelor of Library Science (BLS) in 1941 and a Master of Library Science (MLS) in 1948 from the University of Illinois. She was a librarian at Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama (1941-1942); Lincoln University of Jefferson City, Missouri (1942-1944); and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois (1957-1962). In addition, Ms. Phinazee was the editor of The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges which was published in 1980. Annette Lewis Hoage Phinazee passed away in 1983 in Durham, North Carolina.

Update 04/13/2013:

See related posts: North Carolina Negro Library Association ; Constance Hill Marteena: Hampton Institute Library School Graduate and President of the North Carolina Negro Library Association ; and George Moses Horton Branch of the Forsyth County Public Library (Winston-Salem, North Carolina).

Sources: Dawson, Alma. "Celebrating African American Librarians and Librarianship." Library Trends 49.1 (2000): 60. Print. ; "Yerby Shows the Way." Jet 45.16 (1974): 4. Print. ; Speller, Benjamin F. "Alethia Annette Lewis Hoage Phinazee (1920-1983)." Dictionary of American Library Biography. Ed. Donald G. Davis. Vol. 3. Westport: Libraries Unlimited, 2003. 173-174. Print. ; The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. Print. ; McAllister-Harper, D., Virginia Purefoy Jones, and Mary Beth Schell. "Annette Lewis Phinazee: Visionary, Cataloger, Educator." Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 25.2 (1998): 227-241. Print. ; "Annette Lewis Phinazee." North Carolina, Deaths, 1931-1994. FamilySearch.org, n.d.Web. 13 Apr. 2013. ; "Joseph Phinazee." North Carolina, Deaths, 1931-1994. FamilySearch.org, n.d.Web. 13 Apr. 2013. ; "Joseph Phinazee." United States Social Security Death Index. FamilySearch.org, n.d.Web. 13 Apr. 2013. ; "Joseph Phinazee." United States, World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946. FamilySearch.org, n.d.Web. 13 Apr. 2013. ; Phinazee, Annette Hoage and Casper L. Jordan. "Centralized Library Purchases and Technical Processing for Six Colleges in Alabama and Mississippi: A Report." College and Research Libraries 30.4 (1969): 369-370. Print.

Minnie B. Slade Bishop: 1939 Graduate of the Hampton Institute Library School

Minne B. Slade Bishop, a 1939 graduate of the Hampton Institute Library School, was a librarian at Arkansas State College (now Arkansas State University) from 1940-1943. Previously, Ms. Bishop worked in Evansville, Indiana as the manager of the Cherry Street Branch of the Evansville Public Library from 1939-1940. In 1943, she was hired as a librarian at Bishop State Community College (formerly Alabama State College-Mobile), in Mobile, Alabama. Ms. Bishop was the wife of Dr. Sanford Bishop, the first president of Bishop State Community College, and the mother of Rep. Sanford Bishop, Jr. of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Minnie Slade Bishop Library of the Bishop State Community College is named for her. Ms. Bishop passed away in 2004.

See related post: Article on Evansville, Indiana's Former African American Library Branch.

Sources: "News Notes." Library Occurrent 13.3 (1939): 87. Print. ; "News Notes from Indiana Libraries." Library Occurrent 13.9 (1941): 281. Print. ; "Sanford D. Bishop, Jr." Bishop.house.gov. U.S. House of Representatives, n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2010. ; "History." Bishop State Community College. Bishop State Community College, n.d. Web. 2 Nov. 2010. ; Campbell, Lucy B. "Hampton Institute Library School." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 46. Print. ; "Library Boosters Named for Cherry Street Branch." The Evansville Argus 15 Mar. 1940: 1. Print. ; "Lincoln Elementary News." The Evansville Argus 17 Nov. 1939: 6. Print. ; "News Flashes: Carolina Visitor." The Evansville Argus 14 Oct. 1939: 1. Print. ; "Derbyville: All I Hear Now..." The Evansville Argus 13 Sept. 1940: 4. Print. ; Hite, Edith E. "News About Folk Here and There: Evansville, Ind." Indianapolis Recorder 21 Oct. 1939: 15. Print. ; "Minnie Slade Bishop, Congressman's Mother, Dies at 89." AccessNorthGa.com. AccessNorthGa.com, 16 Sept. 2004. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. ; "Death Elsewhere: Minnie Slade Bishop." Rome News-Tribune 18 Sept. 2004: 5A. Print. ; "Marries in Georgia." The Evansville Argus 29 Aug. 1942: 1. Print. ; "To Spend Summer in N.C." The Evansville Argus 30 May 1941: 1. Print. ; Fenton, Michele T. "Way Down Yonder at the Cherry Street Branch: A Short History of Evansville's Negro Library." Indiana Libraries 30.2 (2011): 39. Print.

Carnegie Negro Library of Meridian, Mississippi

The Carnegie Negro Library of Meridian, Mississippi opened in 1913. Located on the corner of 13th Street and 28th Avenue, this library was the first library for African Americans in Lauderdale County. Land for the library was provided by St. Paul's United Methodist Church, and $8,000 in Carnegie funds was allotted for the library's construction. In 1974, the library closed, and the building was torn down on May 28, 2008.

Update 10/28/2012:

Additional resources relating to the Carnegie Negro Library of Meridian, Mississippi:

"Improvements." The Christian Educator 27.2 (1916): 12. Print.

Work, Monroe N. "Libraries for Negroes." The Negro Yearbook: An Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro, 1921-1922. Tuskegee, AL: The Negro Yearbook Book Publishing Co., 1922. 268. Print.

Update 2/29/2013:

The Carnegie Negro Library of Meridian, Mississippi is mentioned in the following sources:

McAllister, Dorothy. "Library Service to the Colored Race." Mississippi Library News 17.2 (1953):113-114. Print.

Gleason, Eliza Atkins. The Southern Negro and the Public Library. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1941. 76. Print.

Sources: McMillen, Neil R. Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow. Urbana: U of Illinois P. 1989. 11. Print. ; Beal, Billie C. "Freedom Summer and Integrating the Meridian, Mississippi Public Library." Newsletter of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association 36.3 (2007): 1. Print. ; McKee, Anne. "I Could Write A Book." Meridian Star 10 Jan. 2008: n. pag. Web. 7 Aug. 2011. ; Conner, Tametria. "Former Carnegie Library Demolished." WTOK.com. News Center 11 (Meridian, MS), 28 May 2008. Web. 7 Aug. 2011. ; McKee, Anne. "The Little Museum That Could, and Did, Thrives in the Twenty-First Century." Meridian Star 26 Apr. 2007: n. pag. Web. 7 Aug. 2011. ; Battles, David M. The History of Public Library Access for African Americans in the South or, Leaving Behind the Plow. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2009. 35-36. Print.

Sadie Peterson Delaney and the U.S. Veterans' Administration Hospital (Tuskegee, Alabama)

In honor of Veterans Day, we will recognize Sadie Peterson Delaney - a pioneer in library services to military veterans:

Sadie Peterson Delaney (1889-1958), a native of Rochester, New York, was the head librarian at the U.S. Veterans Administration Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama (1924-1958) and promoted the use of bibliotherapy in helping the hospital's patients.

Prior to her career at the  U.S. Veterans Administration Hospital, Ms. Delaney was a librarian at the New York Public Library (she left in 1924). She received her library science education at the New York Public Library's Library School, completing her training in 1921. Ms. Delaney passed away in 1958.


See related posts: Mattie Herd Roland and the Booker T. Washington Branch Library (Birmingham, Alabama); and Dulcina DeBerry and the Huntsville Public Library (Huntsville, Alabama).


Sources: Gubert, Betty K. "Sadie Peterson Delaney: Pioneer Bibliotherapist." American Libraries 24.2 (1993):124-125, 127, 129-130. Print. ; Jordan, Casper Leroy, and E.J. Josey. "A Chronology of Events in Black Librarianship." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 6. Print. ;  Jordan, Casper Leroy. "African American Forerunners Librarianship." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 30-32. Print. ; Robinson, Carrie. "Alabama Association of School Librarians."  Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 53-54. Print. ; "Obituary." Bulletin of the American Medical Library Association 46.3 (1958): 495. Print. ; Barrett, Kayla and Bishop, Barbara A. "Integration and the Alabama Library Association: Not So Black and White." Libraries & Culture 33.2 (1998): 146-148. Print. ; King, Annie Greene. "Library Service and the Black Librarian in Alabama." The Black Librarian in the Southeast Reminiscences, Activities, and Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. Print.

Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center at Indiana University (Bloomington, Indiana)

The Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center was established on the campus of Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana in 1968. Originally named Black House, the center was created to serve the university's African and African American students. In 1972 the center was known as the Black Culture Center; in 1997 the African American Cultural Center, and then in 2002, the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. Housed within the center are the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library, the African American Arts Institute, and the Office of Diversity Education.

See related post: Purdue University Black Cultural Center.

Sources: "About Us." Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center... Where You Belong. Indiana University, 28 Aug. 2008. Web. 26 Jan. 2011. ; "IU Students' Protest Prevents Black Library Closing." Jet 109.20 (2006): 32. Print.

Update 04/17/2012:

   Additional article about the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center:

  Jackson-Brown, Grace. "Indiana Builds Three African American Special Collections." College & Research Libraries News 55.2 (1994): 75, 83.

Update 09/02/2012:

   More articles about the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center:

"I.U.'s Black Culture Center Finally Gets Permanent Home." Indianapolis Recorder 23 June 1973: 14. Print.

"Black Student Affairs Coordinator is Named." Indianapolis Recorder 9 Sept. 1972: 14. Print.

"Black Culture Center at IU to Have Broad Program." Indianapolis Recorder 14 Oct. 1972: 14. Print.

"IU Mourns Death of Dr. Herman C. Hudson, Founder of Many African American Programs on Campus." Indianapolis Recorder 21 Feb. 2003: A1. Print.

*Note: The Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center is named for the first African American man and the first African American woman to graduate from Indiana University -- Marcellus Neal (1895) and Frances Marshall (1919).

"Indiana University Alumni Association Neal-Marshall Alumni Club Invites You to Attend Reunion XIII 'Attaining the Dream'." Indianapolis Recorder 21 June 1997: A5. Print.

"A Walk through Bloomington's African American History." Historic Tour Guide No. 14. Bloomington, IN: City of Bloomington, n.d. Pdf File.  Available online at:
http://bloomington.in.gov/media/media/application/pdf/5459.pdf

The Mayme A. Clayton Library Museum and Cultural Center (MCL)

The Mayme A. Clayton Library Museum and Cultural Center (MCL) in Culver City, California is named for Mayme Agnew Clayton (1923-2006). Ms. Clayton was a librarian at the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. In the 1960s, she began assembling a collection of items relating to African American culture and history which is housed at the center. Today, the Mayme A. Clayton Library Museum and Cultural Center's collection consists of over 3.5 million items and is believed to be the largest private collection of African American history and culture. Ms. Clayton passed away in 2006.

See related posts: Miriam Matthews and the Los Angeles Public Library ; The E. Azalia Hackley Collection of Negro Music, Dance, and Drama ; and Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, 1874-1938: Noted Bibliophile, Collector, Curator,and Scholar.

Sources: Kaiser, Ernest. "Library Holdings on African Americans." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 272. Print. ; "Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum: Mission  & History." Claytonmuseum.org. Mayme A. Clayton Library Museum and Cultural Center, n.d. Web. 4 December 2010. ; Thompson, Kathleen, and Austin, Hilary Mac. "In Praise of Mayme A. Clayton: Images of the African American West." BlackPast.org. Black Past, n.d. Web. 4 December 2010. ; Wilkin, Binnie Tate. "Introduction." African American Librarians in the Far West: Pioneers and Trailblazers. Ed. Binnie Tate Wilkin. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2006. xviii. Print. ; Copage, Eric V. "The Race to Save Black History: As Art Collections Deteriorate, Preservationists Struggle to Save Our Culture." Ebony 58.4 (2008): 116-118, 120, 122. Print.

Susan Dart Butler and the Dart Hall Branch Library (Charleston, South Carolina)

In 1927, Susan Dart Butler (1888-1959), the daughter of Rev. John Lewis and Julia Pierre Dart,  established the Dart Hall Library for  the African American citizens of Charleston, South Carolina. The library was located in a room in Dart Hall which was formerly used as the printing office for the newspaper, The Southern Reporter. Prior to his death, Ms. Butler's father, Rev. John Lewis Dart, was the editor and owner of the newspaper.

The Dart Hall Library  became a branch of the Charleston Free Library in 1931. Ms. Butler, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, served as the branch's manager from 1931 until her retirement in 1957. She passed away in 1959.

Update 03/22/2013:

Susan Dart Butler was the wife of Nathaniel Lowe Butler, Sr. whom she married in 1912. Ms. Butler attended the Avery Normal Institute, Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University), the McDowell Millinery School, and the Hampton Institute Library School (Hampton Institute is now Hampton University).

Ethel Evangeline Martin Bolden, a 1959 graduate of the Atlanta University Library School, wrote her Master's thesis on Susan Dart Butler. Ms. Bolden was responsible for establishing the first elementary school library in Columbia, South Carolina for African American students. Ms. Bolden's thesis is now available online through the efforts of the University of South Carolina (click on the link below to access):

http://www.libsci.sc.edu/histories/biographies/butler/butler-index.htm

Sources: Lee, Dan R. "From Segregation to Integration: Library Services for Blacks in South Carolina, 1923-1962." Untold Stories: Civil Rights, Libraries, and Black Librarianship. Ed. John Mark Tucker. Champaign: Board of Trustees of the U of I, 1998. 95. Print. ; Battles, David M. The History of Public Library Access for African Americans in the South, or, Leaving Behind the Plow. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2009. 61. Print. ; Jordan, Casper LeRoy. "African American Forerunners in Librarianship." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 20-30. Print. ; Walker, Lillie S. "Black Librarians in South Carolina." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. 90-93. Print. ; Josey, E.J. "Foreword." Educating Black Librarians: Papers from the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the School of Library and Information Science, North Carolina Central University. Jefferson: McFarland, 1991. x-xi. Print. ; "Susan E. Dart." United States Census, 1900. FamilySearch.org, n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. ; "Ethel Bolden Papers, ca. 1900-2002." University of South Carolina, University Libraries, South Caroliniana Library. University of South Carolina, 24 Aug. 2007. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. ; "Ethel Martin Bolden." South Carolina African American History Calendar, Mar. 2004: n.pag. Web. 23 Jan. 2011. ; "AKA Honors Ethel Bolden." Columbia Star. Columbia Star, 30 Mar. 2007. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. ; Haith, Dorothy M. "The Southeastern Black School Librarian." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. 90-229. Print. ; Bolden, Ethel Evangeline Martin. "Susan Dart Butler: Pioneer Librarian." MS thesis. Atlanta University, 1959. Pdf.

Nella Larsen: Author and Librarian

Nella Larsen (1891-1964), a writer and the first African American woman to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, was a children's librarian at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library. She also worked at the Seward Park and Countee Cullen branches. In 1923, Ms. Larsen received her librarian's certificate from the Library School of the New York Public Library (the school merged in 1926 with the New York State Library School to become Columbia University School of Library Service).

Sources: Potter, Joan. African American Firsts (Updated). New York: Dafina Books, 2009. 105. Print. ; "All Fellows: Nella Larsen." John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2010. ; Hutchinson, George. In Search of Nella Larsen: A Biography of the Color Line. Cambridge: Belknap of Harvard U P, 2006. 8, 65, 68, 139-143, 145-152. Print, ; Davis, Thadious M. Nella Larsen: Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance: A Woman's Life Unveiled. Baton Rouge: Louisiana U P, 1994. 144-147, 149-151, 216-217. Print. ; Shockley, Ann Allen. "Librarians, Archivists, and Writers: A Personal Perspective." Ed. E.J. Josey. The Black Librarian in America Revisited. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1994. 322. Print. ; Hill, Claudia. "135th Street Library." Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. Ed. Cary D. Wintz and Paul Finkelman. Vol. 2. New York: Routledge, 2004. 926. Print. ; Roffman, Karin. "Nella Larsen, Librarian at 135th Street." MFS Modern Fiction Studies 53.4 (2007): 752-787. Print.

Dudley Randall: Librarian, Poet, and Founder of Broadside Press

Dudley Randall (1914-2000), a librarian, established the Broadside Press in 1965. Mr. Randall was a librarian at Morgan State University from 1954 until 1956. He also held various library positions at the University of Detroit, the University of Michigan, Lincoln University (Missouri), and the Wayne County Federated Library System. Mr. Randall received his library degree from the University of Michigan in 1951. In addition, Mr. Randall was a poet. He passed away in August of 2000.

Update 10/11/2012:

Dudley Randall, Albert P. Marshall, and Helen Price Sawyer Braxton worked together as librarians at Lincoln University (Missouri) during the 1950s.

Update 10/22/2012:

In 1954, Dudley Randall authored the poem Booker T.  and W.E.B.  To read the poem, click here.

Update 01/25/2013:
There is a brief biography of Dudley Randall written by Amber Eaton on the BlackPast.org. Click on the following link to read:

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/randall-dudley-1914-2000

Sources: Joyce, Donald Franklin. "Unique Gatekeepers of Black Culture: Three Black Librarians as Book Publishers." Untold Stories: Civil Rights, Libraries, and Black Librarianship. Ed. John Mark Tucker. Champaign: Board of Trustees of the U of Illinois, 1998. 153-154. Print. ; Shockley, Anne Allen. "Librarians, Archivists, and Writers: A Personal Perspective." The Black Librarian in America Revisited. Ed. E.J. Josey. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1994. 322-323. Print. ; Wright, Joyce C. "Black Librarians as Creative Writers." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 653-654. Print. ; Thompson, Julius E. Dudley Randall, Broadside Press, and the Black Arts Movement in Detroit, 1960-1995. Jefferson: McFarland, 1999. Print. ; Boyd, Melba J. Wrestling with the Muse: Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press. New York: Columbia U P, 2003. Print. ; "Dudley Randall Reviews Novel by Alan Paton." Lincoln Clarion (Jefferson City, Mo.) 13 Feb. 1953: 1. Print. ; "Page Has New Service System." Lincoln Clarion (Jefferson City, Mo.) 7 June 1952: 1, 3. Print. ; "Marshall Gets Office in State Library Assoc." Lincoln Clarion (Jefferson City, Mo.) 19 Oct. 1951: 2. Print. ; "Librarians Attend Chicago Meeting." Jefferson City Post-Tribune 5 July 1951: 10. Print. ; "Faculty Spends Holidays Both Near and Far Away." Lincoln Clarion (Jefferson City, Mo.) 7 Jan. 1955: 2. Print.

The Colored Carnegie Library of Houston, Texas

The Colored Carnegie Library (Houston) was founded in 1909. The library was originally housed inside Booker T. Washington High School until 1913, when the library received a building of its own from the Carnegie Foundation. In 1922, the library's administration was returned to the Houston Public Library System after eight years of independent operation by an all-black library board. Emma Myers was the first librarian (1909-1911).

Sources: Battles, David M. The History of Public Library Access for African Americans in the South or, Leaving Behind the Plow. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2009. 35. Print. ; Malone, Cheryl Knott. "Autonomy and Accomodation: Houston's Colored Carnegie Library, 1907-1922." Libraries and Culture 34.2 (1999): 95-112. Print. ; Malone, Cheryl Knott. "Quiet Pioneers: Black Women Public Librarians in the Segregated South." Vitae Scholasticae 19.1 (2000): 4, 8-11. Print.

Allen Mercer Daniel: Howard University School of Law Librarian and Member of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL)

Allen Mercer Daniel (1888-1976), the first African American member of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), was also the first law librarian of Howard University (1940-1956).

Sources: Berry, Cynthia. "Allen Mercer Daniel: A Leader in Librarianship." AALL Spectrum 4 (2000): 12. Print. ; Centennial Committee of the Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section. "Firsts in Academic Law Libraries." American Association of Law Libraries - Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section. American Association of Law Libraries, 22 Sept. 2006. Web. 28 Sept. 2010. ; "Daniel Online Resource Guide." Howard University School of Law Library. Howard University  School of Law Library, 6 Oct. 2010. Web. 28 Sept. 2010. ; "Introducing the AALL Hall of Fame." AALL Spectrum Jul. 2010: 14. Print.

Update 09/24/2012:

The following resource contains additional information about Allen Mercer Daniel:

Nicholson, Carol A., Ruth J.Hill, and Vicente E. Garces. Celebrating Diversity: A Legacy of Minority Leadership in the American Association of Law Libraries. Buffalo, NY: W.S. Hein & Co., 2006. 20-25. Print.

Update 03/15/2013:

See related posts: William Henry Smith: Librarian for the U.S. House of Representatives ; John F.N. Wilkinson and the Law Library of Congress.

Vivian Gordon Harsh and the Chicago Public Library

Vivian Gordon Harsh (1890-1960), a native of Chicago, Illinois, was the first African American librarian to work at the Chicago Public Library. Ms. Harsh began her career at the Chicago Public Library in 1909 as a clerk, and in 1924, began working at the library as a librarian. She studied library science at Simmons College and the University of Chicago. 

In 1932, the Chicago Public Library built the George Cleveland Hall Branch. This was the first branch in the system that was located in an African American neighborhood. Harsh served as the branch's manager. Charlemae Hill Rollins, another African American librarian, served as the head of the branch's children's department. Ms. Harsh remained at the Chicago Public Library until her retirement in 1958. Ms. Harsh passed away in 1960.

See related post: Charlemae Hill Rollins and the Chicago Public Library.

Sources: Joyce, Donald Franklin. "Vivian Gordon Harsh Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library." Library Quarterly 58.1 (1988): 67-74. Print. ; "Black History Prophets and Custodians: Handful of Men and Women Created Foundations of Saga of Persistence and Creativity." Ebony 50.4 (1995): 90. Print. ; Harris, Kathryn M. "Generations of Pride: African American Timeline: A Selected Chronology." Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. ; Shaw, Spencer G. "Not What You Get, But What You Give." The Black Librarian in America. Ed. E.J. Josey. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1970. 153. Print. ; Garner, Carla W. "Harsh, Vivian Gordon (1890-1960)." BlackPast.org. BlackPast.org, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. ; Bobinski, George S. Libraries and Librarianship: Sixty Years of Challenge and Change, 1945-2005. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2007. 99. Print.

Rev. B. C. Duke and the Tennessee Town Library (Topeka, Kansas)

Rev. B.C. Duke was the earliest known African American librarian in Topeka, Kansas. He was the librarian for the Tennessee Town Library which was housed in a tavern owned by Andrew Jordan. Rev. Duke came to Kansas from Tennessee in 1887. Tennessee Town is a neighborhood in Topeka that was settled by freed slaves from Tennessee who were part of the Exodusters Movement.

Sources: Cox, Thomas C. Blacks in Topeka, Kansas, 1865-1915: A Social History. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State U P, 1982. 146-147. Print. ; Tennessee Town, Topeka, Kansas Neighborhood Plan: An Element of the Comprehensive Metropolitan Plan 2025, City of Topeka-Shawnee County, Kansas. Topeka: Tennessee Town Neighborhood Improvement Assoc. & Topeka-Shawnee County Metropolitan Planning Dept., 2001. 32-33. Print.

The Bethel Historical and Literary Association

The Bethel Historical and Literary Association, a literary society for African Americans, was founded in 1881 by Daniel A. Payne in Washington, D.C. The society met at Bethal Hall, a building owned by the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church. Members of the Bethel Historical and Literary Association met to discuss literature and issues of  interest and importance to African Americans. Meetings often included guest lecturers and speakers. Notable speakers included:

Frederick Douglas

Ida B. Wells Barnett

John Mercer Langston

Archibald H. Grimke

Richard Greener

Charles W. Chesnutt

John W. Cromwell

Mary Church Terrell


Note: Mary Church Terrell, an 1884 graduate of Oberlin College and a professor at Wilberforce College (now Wilberforce University), became the society's first female president in 1892.

See related posts: John Edward Bruce: Ex-Slave, Bibliophile, Historian, and Journalist and Arthur Alfonso-Schomburg, 1874-1938: Noted Bibliophile, Collector, Curator, and Scholar.

Sources: McHenry, Elizabeth. Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies. Durham: Duke U P, 2002. 149-165. Print. ; Albritton, Rosie L. "The Founding & Prevelance of African-American Social Libraries & Historical Societies, 1828-1918." Untold Stories: Civil Rights, Libraries, and Black Librarianship. Ed. John Mark Tucker. Champaign: U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1998. 35. Print. ; Sinnette, Elinor D.V. Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Black Bibliophile & Collector: A Biography. New York: New York Public Library, 1989. 51. Print. ; "Emancipation Meetings." Crisis 5.5 (Mar. 1913): 243-244. Print. ; Des Jardines, Julie. Women and the Historical Enterprise of America: Gender, Race, and the Politics of Memory, 1880-1945. Chapel Hill, NC: U of North Carolina, 2003. 120-121. Print.

North Carolina Negro Library Association

The North Carolina Negro Library Association was founded in 1934 by Mollie Huston Lee. The association provided support and professional networking for African American librarians in North Carolina. In 1943, the North Carolina Negro Library Association became a chapter of the American Library Association. The organization merged with the North Carolina Library Association in 1955.

Update 11/06/2012:

The North Carolina Negro Library Association had its own publication, Library Service Review. Albert P. Marshall served as the publication's first editor (at that time, Mr. Marshall worked at Winston-Salem Teachers College -- now called Winston-Salem State University). Members of the editorial board included Mollie Huston Lee, Constance Hill Marteena, Nell Wright (later Nell Wright Alford), Anne Robinson, Ester F. Smith, and Ann Johnson. Benjamin F. Smith of the North Carolina College Library School (now the North Carolina Central University School of Library and Information Science) was the publication's business and circulation manager.

Past presidents of the North Carolina Negro Library Association included Constance Hill Marteena, Thelma Nelson, Joyce McClendon, and Mollie Huston Lee.

Update 12/09/2012:
See related post: Constance Hill Marteena: Hampton Institute Library School Graduate and President of the North Carolina Negro Library Association.

Update 12/11/2012:
Mary Hairston of the George Moses Horton Branch of the Forsyth County Public Library (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) chaired the committee responsible for compiling the handbook for the North Carolina Negro Library Association (the handbook was published in 1940).
See: Lee, Mollie Huston. "Development of Negro Libraries in North Carolina." North Carolina Libraries 3.2 (1944): 1-3, 7. Print. 
 
See related post:
George Moses Horton Branch of the Forsyth County Public Library (Winston-Salem, North Carolina).

Update 2/26/2013:
Johnson C. Smith University (Charlotte, North Carolina) has in its digital collection a group photo of the attendees of the 1955 Conference of the North Carolina Negro Library Association:

http://cdm15170.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15170coll3/id/99

Update 04/13/2013:
See related post: Annette Hoage Phinazee: Dean, Professor, Author, and Librarian.

Sources: Marshall, Albert P. "North Carolina Negro Library Association." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 63-68. Print. ; Speller, Benjamin F. and James R. Jarrell. "Profiles of Pioneers: Selected North Carolina Black Librarians." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. 74-75, 78, 80. Print. ; Valentine, Patrick. "Mollie Huston Lee: Founder of Raleigh's Black Public Library." North Carolina Libraries 56.1 (1998): 23-26. Print. ; "Lee, Mollie Huston (1907-1982)." Black America: A State-by-State Historical Encyclopedia. Ed. Alton Hornsby, Jr. Vol. I. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood, 2011. 613-614. Print. ; Library Service Review 1.1 (1948); Library Service Review 1.2 (1948).

Marcus Bruce Christian (1900-1976), Louisiana Librarian

Marcus Bruce Christian (1900-1976) was assistant librarian at Dillard University from 1944-1950. Mr. Christian, a native of Mechanicsville, Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, was the son of Emanuel Banks Christian and Ruth Harris Christian. As a child, Mr. Christian attended school at the Houma Academy.

In addition to his work as a librarian, Mr. Christian was also a poet and author. In 1936, Christian joined the Federal Writers Project. This program was part of the Work Progress Administration (also known as WPA; later as the Works Project Administration) and was charged with providing jobs for authors, historians, and educators. Christian was assigned to the Louisiana Writers Project (LWP), the Louisiana section of the Federal Writers Project. He spent six years with the LWP, working on the history African Americans in Louisiana. His work on the project was done at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In 1943, Christian received a fellowship from the Rosenwald Fund* to study African American history. In 1944, he began his library career at Dillard University. Christian also published pieces in The Crisis, Phylon, Opportunity, New York Herald Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier, and in the Louisiana Weekly (he served as editor). He was a contemporary of Arna Wendell Bontemps and Langston Hughes.

Christian's works included:

From the Deep South (1937)
  
In Memoriam, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thirty-Second President of the United States of America, Who Died Thursday, April Twelfth, Nineteen Forty-Five (1945)

Common People's Manifesto of World War II (1948)

High Ground: A Collection of Poems Published in Commemoration of the United States Supreme Court's Decision of May 17, 1954, and Its Final Decree of May 31, 1955, Abolishing Racial Segregation in the Nation's Public Schools (1958)

Negro Soldiers in the Battle of New Orleans (1965)

Negro Ironworkers of Louisiana, 1718-1900 (1972)

I Am New Orleans and Other Poems (1999 -- published posthumously)


In his later years, Christian taught history at the University of New Orleans. Mr. Christian passed away on November 21, 1976. His papers are housed in the Louisiana and Special Collections Department of the Earl K. Long Library at the University of New Orleans.


*Note: The Rosenwald Fund was founded in 1917 by Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932), an executive of Sears, Roebuck, and Company.  The Rosenwald Fund provided money to build schools (known as the "Rosenwald Schools), and provided aid to colleges and universities, libraries, museums, and other institutions. In addition, the Rosenwald Fund paid for African Americans to attend the First Negro Library Conference in 1927 at the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) and to receive training in 1930 at the Summer Librarian Institute at Spelman College.

See related posts: Dryades Branch of the New Orleans Public Library (New Orleans, Louisiana) : A Colored Carnegie Library ; Arna Wendell Bontemps: Fisk University Librarian, Poet, and Author ; and Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, 1874-1938: Noted Bibliophile, Collector, Curator, and Scholar.


Sources: Mizell-Nelson, Michael. "Marcus Bruce Christian." Harlem Renaissance Lives from the African American National Biography. Ed. Henry Louis Gates and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. New York: Oxford U P, 2009. 115-116. Print. ; Hessler, Marilyn S. "Marcus Christian: The Man and His Collection." Louisiana History 28.1 (1987): 37-55. Print. ; "Marcus Bruce Christian." Black Librarians Table. Chicken Bones: A Journal for Literary & Artistic African American Themes, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2010. ; Redding, Joan. "The Dillard Project: The Black Unit of the Louisiana Writers' Project." Louisiana History 32.1 (1991): 47-62. Print. ; Johnson, Jerah. "Marcus B. Christian and the WPA History of Black People in Louisiana." Louisiana History 20.1 (1979): 113-115. Print. ; Dalin, David G. (1998). "What Julius Rosenwald Knew." Commentary 105.4 (1998): 36-39. Print.; Fenton, Michele T. "Stepping Out on Faith: Lillian Haydon Childress Hall, Pioneer Black Librarian." Indiana Libraries 33.1 (2014): 6. Print. ; Curtis, Florence Rising. "Colored Librarians in Conference." Library Journal 52.8 (1927): 408. Print. ; "Personal." Library Occurrent 8.2 (1927): 66. Print. ; "Library Institute for Negro Librarians." Library Journal 55.18 (1930): 932. Print.





 

Librarian Education: Eliza Atkins Gleason, First African American to Earn PhD in Library Science

Eliza Atkins Gleason, an alumna of Fisk University, became the first dean of the library school at Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University) in 1941. She was also the first African American to earn a PhD in library science, which she earned from the University of Chicago in 1940 (her dissertation was published in 1941 as the book, The Southern Negro and the Public Library). Before coming to Atlanta University, Ms. Gleason was a librarian at Fisk University and at the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes (now Simmons College of Kentucky), and served as library director at Talladega College (Alabama) from 1940-1941.

A native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Ms. Gleason was born December 15, 1909 to Simon Green Atkins and Oleona Pegram Atkins. Both of Ms. Gleason's parents were educators (her mother was an alumna of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee; her father an alumnus of St. Augustine's College in Raleigh, North Carolina). Winston-Salem State University was founded by Ms. Gleason's father in 1892 (the school was formerly known as Slater Industrial Academy).

After graduating high school, Ms. Gleason attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. She graduated in 1930. A year later, she received her Bachelor of Library Science (BLS) from the University of Illinois. In 1935, she received a master's degree in library science from the University of California-Berkley. In 1937, she became the wife of Dr. Maurice Gleason.

Ms. Gleason was appointed dean of the Atlanta University Library School in 1941. She remained at the Atlanta University Library School until 1946. After leaving Atlanta, Georgia, she relocated to Chicago, Illinois and worked at Chicago Teachers College, Woodrow Wilson Junior College, Illinois Teachers College, John Crerar Library, Illinois Institute of Technology, and the Chicago Public Library. Ms. Gleason also was a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago and a library science professor at Northern Illinois University.

After many years of service in the library profession, Ms. Gleason passed away at the age of 100 on December 15, 2009 in Louisville, Kentucky. In 2010, she was inducted into the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Honor.  The Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award is named in her honor and is given by the American Library Association's Library History Round Table to recognize books written on the subject of library history.

*Notes:

Ms. Gleason was not the only librarian in her family. Her sister, Ollie Atkins Carpenter, was a 1927 graduate of the Hampton Institute Library School in Hampton,Virginia (Hampton Institute is now Hampton University). Ms. Carpenter was also the library school's first graduate to work in Kentucky when she became librarian at the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes. In addition, Ms. Carpenter was also a librarian at Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama (the school is now Tuskegee University); at Summer High School in St. Louis, Missouri; and at the University of Maryland.

On YouTube, there is a video of Eliza Atkins Gleason's induction into the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Honor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2uEwkNiR60 .

Established in 1941, the library school at Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University) remained in operation for 64 years before closing its doors in 2005.

Update 02/03/2013:

Legacy.com has a copy of Ms. Gleason's obituary from The Winston-Salem Journal: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/winstonsalem/obituary.aspx?pid=137723460#fbLoggedOut


See related posts: Virginia Lacy Jones: Second African American to Earn PhD in Library Science and Annette Hoage Phinazee: Dean, Professor, Author, and Librarian.

Sources: Woodson, Almeta Gould. "Fifty Years of Service: A Chronological History of the School of Library Service Atlanta University, 1941-1979; the School of Library and Information Studies Atlanta University, 1979-1989; the School of Library and Information Studies, Clark Atlanta University, 1989-1991." Georgia Librarian 28.3 (1991):71-72, 78. Print. ; Jordan, Casper and E.J. Josey. "A Chronology of Events in Black Librarianship." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 7. Print. ; Dawson, Alma. "Celebrating African American Librarians and Librarianship." Library Trends 49.1 (2000): 58. Print. ; Totten, Herman L. "Southeastern Black Educators." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. 202. Print. ; "Eliza Atkins Gleason." Courier Journal (Louisville, Ky.). Courier Journal (Louisville, Ky.), 21 Dec. 2009. Web. 5 Jan. 2011. ; Freightman, Connie Green. "Historically Black College Closes its Library Studies Program." Crisis 112.1 (2005): 10. Print. ; A Directory of Negro Graduates of Accredited Library Schools, 1900-1936. Washington: Columbia Civic Library Association, 1937. 6, 8. Print. ; "Eliza Atkins Gleason." College of Arts and Sciences, Hall of Honor. University of Louisville, n.d. Web. 1. Feb. 2011. ; "Death Notice: Eliza Atkins Gleason." Chicago Tribune News(Online). Chicago Tribune News, 25 Jan. 2010. Web. 2 Feb. 2013. ; Jones, Reinette F. Library Service to African Americans in Kentucky, from the Reconstruction Era to the 1960s. Jefferson: McFarland, 2002. 32, 82, 84, 90, 94-95, 161, 163. Print. ; DeLoach, Marva L. "Black Academic Libraries." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 413, 419. Print. ; "Eliza Atkins Gleason Book Award." American Library Association. American Library Association, 2013. Web. 3 Feb. 2013. ; Josey, E.J. "Gleason, Eliza Atkins." World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences. Ed. Robert Wedgeworth. 3rd ed. Chicago: American Library Association, 1993. 325-326. Print. ; "Atlanta University." The Crisis 48.5(1941): 148. Print. ; Freightman, Connie Green. "Historically Black College Closes Its Library Studies Program." The Crisis 112.1 (2005): 10. Print. ; "Gleason, Eliza Valeria Atkins." Biographical Dictionary of Modern American Educators. Ed.  Frederik Ohles, Shirley M. Ohles, and John G. Ramsay. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. 132-133.Print.

Librarian Education: Louisville Free Public Library

Rev. Thomas Fountain Blue (1866-1935), head of the Colored Libraries of the Louisville Free Public Library, instituted a library training program for African Americans at the Western Colored Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library in Louisville, Kentucky in 1912. At the time the program was established, there were no schools available in the South to train African American library workers. The training program remained in operation until 1931.

Update 03/09/2013:

Fannie C. Porter, the first African American librarian to work for the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library (Evansville, Indiana), was a student in Rev. Blue's training program. Ms. Porter attended the program during the summer of 1914. During her tenure at the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library, Ms. Porter worked as an assistant librarian at the West Branch (1914) and later served as the first branch manager for the Cherry Street Branch (1914-1915). She left the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library in April 1915.

Note: The Cherry Street Branch, the third Carnegie library built in Evansville, Indiana, provided services to African Americans from 1914 until its closure in 1954.

Update 03/25/2013:

Mattie Herd Roland, the first African American librarian in Alabama, was a student in the Rev. Blue's training program. She attended the program during the summer of 1918 and was appointed head of the Booker T. Washington Branch of the Birmingham Public Library the same year. The Booker T. Washington Branch provided library services to Birmingham's African American residents. It became the Smithfield Branch of the Birmingham Public Library in 1956.


See related posts: Rev. Thomas Fountain Blue and the Colored Branches of the Louisville Free Public Library ; Fannie C. Porter and the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Public Library ; Article on Evansville, Indiana's Former African American Library Branch ; and Mattie Herd Roland and the Booker T. Washington Branch Library (Birmingham, AL).

Sources: Spradling, Mary Mace. "Black Librarians in Kentucky." The Black Librarian in the Southeast: Reminiscences, Activities, Challenges. Ed. Annette L. Phinazee. Durham: NCCU School of Library Science, 1980. 40. Print. ; Jones, Reinette F. Library Services to African Americans in Kentucky: From the Reconstruction Era to the 1960s. Jefferson: McFarland, 2006. 53-55. Print. ; Jordan, Casper LeRoy. "African American  Forerunners in Librarianship." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E. J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 28-29. Print. ; Du Mont, Rosemary Ruhig and William Caynon. "Education of Black Librarians." Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. Ed. Allen Kent. Vol. 45, suppl. 10. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1990. 111. Print. ; Blue, Thomas F. "Work with the Negro Round Table." The Southern Workman 51.9 (1922): 437-438. Print. ; "Louisville." Library Occurrent 6.2 (1921): 80-81. Print. ; Brown, Beatrice S. Louisville's Historic Black Neighborhoods. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012. 104. Print. ; Librarianship in Gilded Age America: An Anthology of Writings, 1868-1901. Ed. Leonard Schlup and Stephen H. Pascen. Jefferson: McFarland, 2009. 322.Print. ; Potter, Joan. African American Firsts: Famous, Little Known, and Unsung Triumphs of Blacks in America. New York: Kensington, 2009. 34. Print. ; Blue, Thomas F. "A Successful Library Experiment." Opportunity 2.20 (1924): 244-246. Print. ; "American Library Association." The Southern Workman 55.11 (1926):486. Print.