Children's Books on the History of African Americans and Libraries

Explore these notable titles to introduce children to the history of African Americans and their contributions to libraries:

Bolte, Mari. Dr. Carla Hayden: The First Woman Librarian of Congress. Paw Prints Publishing, 2023.

Denise, Anika. Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré. Illustrated by Paola Escobar, First edition, Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2019.

Felecié Soto, Ada Myriam, and Abimael Ortiz Alvarez. Arturo and the Hidden Treasure. 1st ed, The Rosen Publishing, 2014.

Gottesfeld, Jeff, et al. Fight for the Right to Read: Samuel Wilbert Tucker and the 1939 Sit-down Strike for Library Reading Equality. Creston Books, 2025.

Lyon, Lea, et al. Ready to Fly: How Sylvia Townsend Became the Bookmobile Ballerina. First edition, Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2020.

Mack, John B., et al. Nobody Promised Me. [Childrens Press], 1970.

McDaniel, Breanna J. Go Forth and Tell: The Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller. Illustrated by April Harrison, Dial Books for Young Readers, 2024.

Miller, William. Richard Wright and the Library Card. Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, First edition, Lee & Low Books, Inc., 1997.

Moening, Kate. Carla Hayden: Librarian of Congress. Bellwether Media, 2021.

Priestley, Mary P., et al. Little Brown Hen Librarian: Based on the True Story of a Little Girl Who Loved to Read. Thurmond Memorial Library: Proctor’s Hall Press, 2017.

Weatherford, Carole Boston. Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library. Illustrated by Eric Velasquez, First edition, Candlewick Press, 2017.

White, C. Ian, and Charles White. Grandpa and the Library: How Charles White Learned to Paint. The Museum of Modern Art, 2018.

Jean Blackwell Hutson (1914-1998): Culture Keeper Extraordinaire

Jean Blackwell Hutson (1914-1998), a native of Sommerfield, Florida, was the curator and chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture from 1948 until 1980. Hutson was a culture keeper extraordinaire in that she worked tirelessly to ensure the acquisition, preservation, and promotion of materials relating to African and African American history.

Ms. Hutson was born Jean Frances Blackwell on September 3, 1914 in Sommerfield, Florida. She was the daughter of Paul Blackwell, a farmer and commission merchant; and Sarah Myers Blackwell, a teacher. Ms. Hutson later moved to Baltimore, Maryland. She was the class valedictorian when she graduated in 1929 from Douglass High School, a high school for African Americans in Baltimore. After high school, Ms. Hutson briefly attended the University of Michigan before transferring to Barnard College where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1935. In 1936, she received her library science degree from Columbia University. In addition, Ms. Hutson was a member of Delta Sigma Theta.

She began her library career at the New York Public Library. She worked at the 135th Street Branch where she was mentored by library pioneer Ernestine Rose. Ms. Hutson also worked at the Harlem Branch, the Countee Cullen Branch, the Woodstock Branch, and the Washington Heights Branch. In 1939, Ms. Hutson married songwriter Andy Razaf (1895-1973). From 1939 until 1942, Ms. Hutson was a school librarian at the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Junior High School in Baltimore, Maryland. She returned to the New York Public Library in 1942. Her marriage to Andy Razaf ended in divorce in 1947.

In 1948, Ms. Hutson became chief of the Schomburg Research Center. While serving as chief of the Schomburg Research Center, Ms. Hutson married John Hutson in 1950 (the couple had one child, Jean Frances Hutson); was an adjunct professor in history at City College of New York (CUNY) from 1962 until 1971; and an assistant librarian from 1964 until 1965 at the University of Ghana where she managed the Africana collection. Also during Hutson's time at Schomburg, the center received money from the Ford Foundation, the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA), and 3M enabling the creation of  an archival program, the hiring of additional personnel to perform preservation work, and the microfilming of the Schomburg Research Center's collection. In addition, Hutson helped secure federal funds to have a new building created for the Schomburg Center (the new facility opened in 1981); was a member of the African Studies Association and the Africana Librarians Council; and participated in the National Commission on Libraries Task Force on Library and Information Services to Cultural Minorities.

Ms. Hutson left the Schomburg Research Center in 1980 and worked as the Assistant Director, Collection Management and Development, Black Studies at the New York Public Library's main branch, retiring in 1984. She passed away in 1998 at the age of 83. The Jean Blackwell Hutson Library Residency Program, a diversity program that ran from 1992 until 2007, was created in her honor by the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Related post: Arthur Schomburg, 1874-1938: Noted Bibliophile, Collector, Curator, and Scholar

Sources: A Directory of Negro Graduates of Accredited Library School, 1900-1936. Washington: Columbia Civic Library Association, 1937. 7. Print. ; Kaiser, Ernest. "Library Holdings on African Americans." Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 254, 261. Print. ; "Jean Blackwell Hutson, Ex-Chief of Schomburg Center Dies." Jet 93.13 (1998): 17. Print. ; Whitaker, Charles. "Schomburg Center Celebrates 75th Anniversary." Ebony 56.1 (2000): 144-146, 148, 150. Print. ; "Schomburg Center: Harlem's Gold Mine of Black Research Material." Ebony 37.11 (1982): 62-63, 66. 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. ; Shockley, Ann Allen. "Librarians, Archivists, and Writers: A Personal Perspective." Ed. E.J. Josey. The Black Librarian in America Revisited. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1994. 321. Print. ; Cooper, Glendora Johnson. "African American Historical Continuity: Jean Blackwell Hutson and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture." Reclaiming the American Library Past: Writing the Women In. Ed. Suzanne Hildenbrand. Norwood: Ablex, 1996. 27-51. Print. ; Sinnette, Elinor D. V. Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Black Bibliophile & Collector: A Biography. New York: New York Public Library, 1989. 218. Print. ; Sink, Bob. "Ernestine Rose (1880-1961)." NYPL Librarians. N.p., 19 Mar. 2011. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. ; Biddle, Stanton. "'A Partnership in Progress': The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture." Crisis 85.10 (Dec. 1978): 330-337. Print. ; Easterbrook, David L. "Jean Blackwell Hutson, 1914-1998." ASA News (Apr./June 1999): 5. Print. ; Sink, Bob. "Jean Frances Blackwell Hutson (1914-1998)." NYPL Librarians. N.p., 4 Sept. 2011. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. ; "Legacies Live On Despite '98 Celebrity Deaths." The Kokomo Tribune (Kokomo, Ind.) 22 Dec. 1998: C5. Print. ; "Goodbye: World Loses Entertainers in '98." The Kerrville Times (Kerrville, Tex.) 27 Dec. 1998: 3. Print. ; "Year: Entertainers Lost This Year Include Eddie Rabbitt and Flip Wilson." The Index-Journal (Greenwood, S.C.) 27 Dec. 1998: 2C. Print. ; Wolf, Gillian. "Hutson, Jean Blackwell 1914-." Contemporary Black Biography. Encyclopedia.com, 1998. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. ; Smith, Dinitia. "Jean Hutson, Schomburg Chief, Dies at 83." The New York Times. The New York Times, 7 Feb. 1998. Web. 15 Feb. 2015. ; National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Task Force on Library and Information Services to Cultural Minorities: Report. Washington, D.C.: National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, 1983. 105. PDF File. ; Wedin, Carolyn. "Hutson, Jean Blackwell." Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-First Century. Vol. 1. Ed. Paul Finkelman. New York, N.Y.: Oxford UP, 2009. 480-481. Print.

Dorothy Porter Wesley: Librarian, Bibliophile, and Culture Keeper

Dorothy Porter Wesley (1905-1995), the first African American to receive a library science degree from Columbia University, was the librarian for the Moorland Spingarn Research Center at Howard University from 1930-1973. She was known nationally and internationally for her efforts in collecting, maintaining, and preserving documents and artifacts relating to African and African American history. A native of Warrenton, Virginia, Ms. Wesley was born on May 25, 1905 to Hayes Joseph and Bertha Ball Burnett. She did her undergraduate studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1928, and married artist James Porter (1905-1970) the following year. Wesley began her library career cataloging materials for the Howard University Library. Wesley later enrolled at Columbia University's library science program (Columbia University's program was created through the merger of the library science programs of the New York Public Library and the State Library of New York). When Ms. Wesley received her Bachelor of Library Science (BLS) in 1931, she became the program's first African American graduate. She also earned her Master of Library Science (MLS) from Columbia University, receiving that degree in 1932.

Ms. Wesley also worked at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library (now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture). In addition, she served on the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped and the National Trust for the Preservation of Historic Sites, was a member of the Writers Club, and helped organized the Henry Proctor Slaughter Collection at Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University). In 1971, Ms. Wesley published "Early Negro Writings, 1760-1837".  She was awarded the Black Caucus Distinguished Achievement Award in 1972 from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA). She married educator Charles Wesley (1891-1987) in 1979. In 1990, Ms. Wesley received the BCALA Trailblazer Award. Dorothy Porter Wesley passed away in 1995. Her daughter, Constance Porter Uzelac (1939-2012) was also a librarian, and served as the executive director of the Dorothy Porter Wesley Research Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Update 9/27/2014:
Janet Sims-Wood recently wrote a biography on Dorothy Porter Wesley:

Wood, Janet Sims. Dorothy Porter Wesley at Howard University: Building a Legacy of Black History. Charleston, S.C.: History Press, 2014. Print.

The book is available from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Alibris, Books-A-Million, and other retailers.

Update 11/12/2014:

See related posts:

Henry Proctor Slaughter: Compositor for the U.S. Government Printing Office, Bibliophile, Collector, and Newspaer Editor and Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, 1874-1938: Noted Bibliophile, Collector, Curator, and Scholar.

Sources: Moses, Sibyl E. "Dorothy Louise Burnett Porter Wesley."African American Women Writers in New Jersey, 1836-2000: A Biographical Dictionary and Bibliographical Guide. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2003. 198-207. Print. ; Scott, Diane R. Celebrating African American Librarians. Feb. 2009: 5. Print. ; Battle, Thomas C. "Dorothy Porter Wesley: Preserver of Black History - Afro-American Librarian." Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Diverse Issues in Higher Education, 16 June 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2010. ; A Directory of Negro Graduates of Accredited Library Schools, 1900-1936. Washington: Columbia Civic Library Association, 1937. 19. 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. ;  Dawson, Alma. "Celebrating African Americans Librarians and Librarianship." Library Trends 49.1 (2000): 61. Print. ; Scarupa, Harriet Jackson. "The Energy-Charged Life of Dorothy Porter Wesley." The Black Librarian in America Revisited. Ed. E.J. Josey. Metuchen: Scarecrow, 1994. 298-315. Print. ; Britton, Helen H. "Dorothy Porter Wesley: Bibliographer, Curator, and Scholar." Reclaiming the American Library Past: Writing the Women In. Ed. Suzanne Hildenbrand. Norwood: Ablex, 1996. 163-186. 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. 185-186. Print. ; McHenry, Elizabeth. Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies. Durham: Duke UP, 2002. 291. 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. 8, 10-12. Print. ; Sinnette, Elinor D. V. Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Black Bibliophile & Collector: A Biography. New York: New York Public Library, 1989. 32, 81, 206. Print. ; Des Jardins, Julie. "Black Librarians and the Search for Women's Biography during the New Negro History Movement." OAH Magazine of History 20.1 (2006): 15-18. Print. ; "Biographies." Dorothy Porter Wesley (1905-1995), Afro-American Librarian and Bibliophile: An Exhibition, February 1- March 16, 2001. Broward County Library, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. ; Uzelac, Constance Porter. "Porter, Wesley Dorothy (1905-1995)." BlackPast. BlackPast.org, n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. ; Finnegan, Gregory. "The Africana Librarians Council and the Cooperative Africana Microform Project since 1989." Africanist Librarianship in an Era of Change. Ed. Victoria K. Evalds and David Henige. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2005. 38. Print. ; "BCALA Distinguished Service Awards 1970-2010." Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Black Caucus of the American Library Association, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. ; "BCALA Trailblazer's Award Recipients." Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Black Caucus of the American Library Association, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. ; Wood, Janet Sims. Dorothy Porter Wesley at Howard University: Building a Legacy of Black History. Charleston, S.C.: History Press, 2014. Print.

Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, 1874-1938: Noted Bibliophile, Collector, Curator,and Scholar

Arthur Alfonso Schomburg (also known as Arturo Alfonso Schomburg), a native of Puerto Rico, was a noted bibliophile and scholar of African and African American history. Mr. Schomburg devoted his life, time, and energy in acquiring and archiving materials relating to the history and culture of people of African descent. In 1926, Mr. Schomburg sold his collection to the New York Public Library. Mr. Schomburg served as curator of the collection, which the New York Public Library housed at its 135th Street Branch. Schomburg also worked at Fisk University where he was instrumental in building the library's Negro history collection. Mr. Schomburg was a member of the Prince Hall Mason Lodge and the Negro Society for Historical Research. In addition, he was the president of the American Negro Academy, a co-founder of the Negro Book Collectors Exchange, and chairman of the Negro Library Association's research committee. Mr. Schomburg passed away in 1938. Schomburg's collection is still housed at the 135th Street Branch, which is now known as the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

See related posts: John Edward Bruce: Ex-Slave, Bibliophile, Historian, and Journalist ; Henry Proctor Slaughter: Compositor for the U.S. Government Printing Office, Bibliophile, Collector, and Newspaer Editor ; The Mayme A. Clayton Library Museum and Cultural Center (MCL) ; and The E. Azalia Hackley Collection of Negro Music, Dance, and Drama (Detroit Public Library).


Sources: Sinnette, Elinor D.V. Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Black Bibliophile & Collector: A Biography. New York: New York Public Library, 1989. Print. ; Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History. Ed. Elinor D.V. Sinnette, W. Paul Coates, and Thomas C. Battle. Washington, D.C.: Howard UP, 1990, 10, 28-29, 33-45, 48, 62, 109, 210. Print. ; Cooper, Glendora Johnson. "African American Historical Continuity: Jean Blackwell Hutson and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture." Reclaiming the American Library Past: Writing the Women In. Ed. Suzanne Hildenbrand. Norwood: Ablex, 1996. 27-51. Print. ; "Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture." New York Public Library. New York Public Library, 2011. Web. 24 Jan. 2011. ; "Schomburg Center Celebrates 75th Anniversary." Ebony 56.1 (2000): 144-146, 148, 150. Print. ;  "Schomburg Center: Harlem's Gold Mine of Black Research Material." Ebony 37.11 (1982): 62-63, 66. 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. ; "Schomburg's Ailing Collection." Ebony 22.12 (1967): 60. Print. ; Dodson, Howard. "The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library." Library Quarterly 58.1 (1988): 74-82. Print. Handbook of Black Librarianship. Ed. E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach. 2nd ed. Lanham: Scarecrow, 2000. 5-6, 20-21, 40, 236, 243, 245, 260. Print. ; Lee, Felicia R. "Harlem Center's Director to Retire in Early 2011." New York Times 19 Apr. 2010: C1. Web. 28 Jan. 2011. ; "IU Historian Named Director of Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture." Indiana University News Room 19 Nov. 2010: n.pag. Web. 28 Jan. 2011. ; Copage, Eric V. "The Race to Save Black History: As Art Collections Deteriorate, Preservationists Struggle to Save Our Culture." Ebony 58.4 (2008): 122. Print. ; Des Jardins, Julie. "Black Librarians and the Search for Women's Biography during the New Negro History Movement." OAH Magazine of History 20.1 (2006): 15-17. Print. ; Patton, Stacey. "Guarding the Schomburg's Rich Fabled Legacy: Khalil Muhammad Becomes the First Scholar to Run the Schomburg Center." Crisis 118.1 (2011): 30-31. Print. ; Diouf, Sylviane Anna. "Schomburg, Arturo Alfonso (1874-1938)." BlackPast.org. BlackPast.org, n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2011. ; 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.