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.

Virginia Proctor Powell Florence: First African American Female Library Science Graduate

Born in 1897, Virginia Proctor Powell Florence was the first African American female to receive a formal education in library science. She was a 1923 graduate of the Pittsburgh Carnegie Library School (the school is now the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Science). Ms. Florence began her career at the New York Public Library (135^th Street Branch).  She was also the first African American librarian to take New York’s certification exam for high school librarians.  In addition, Ms. Florence was a librarian at Seward Park High School in Brooklyn, New York; Cordoza High School in Washington, D.C.; and Maggie L. Walker Senior High School in Richmond, Virginia. She retired from librarianship in 1965. Ms. Florence passed away in 1991 in Richmond, Virginia.

Ms. Florence's husband, Charles Wilbur Florence (the couple married in 1931), was the president of Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri from 1931 until 1937. A 1919 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Mr. Florence later served as the head of Virginia Union University's Department of Education from 1938 until his retirement in 1956. He passed away in 1974.

Update 12/26/2012:

See related posts: Edward Christopher Williams: First African American Male Library Science Graduate ; Helen Price Sawyer Braxton: Hampton Institute Library School Graduate and Librarian at Lincoln University (Jefferson City, Missouri).

Sources: “Virginia Proctor Powell Florence: A Remarkable Oberlin Alumna Librarian.” Library Perspectives: A Newsletter of the Oberlin College Library 32 (2005): 5. Print. ; Gunn, Arthur C. "A Black Woman Wants to Be A Professional: The Struggle of Virginia Proctor Powell Florence." American Libraries (Feb. 1989): 154-157. Print. ; Scott, Diane R. Celebrating African American Librarians. Feb. 2009: 2. Print. ; Josey, E.J. "Foreword." Educating Black Librarians: Papers from the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the School of Library and Information Sciences, North Carolina Central University. Ed. Benjamin F. Speller, Jr. Jefferson: McFarland, 1991. x-xi. Print. ; Directory of Negro Graduates of Accredited Library Schools, 1900-1936. Washington: Columbia Civic Library Association, 1937. 10, 26. Print. ; Dyer, Ervin. "The Great Debater." Pitt Magazine (Summer 2008):n. pag. Web. 2012 Dec. 26.

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.

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.

  

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.