"Mollie Huston Lee"(January 18,1907-January 26,1982)

Was the first African-American Liberian in Raleigh, North Carolina and the founder of Raleigh's Richard B. Harrison Public Library,the first library in Raleigh to serve African-American.Her greatest achievement was developing,maintaining,and increasing public public library service to the African-American people of Raleigh and Wake County,North Carolina while striving to achieve equal library service to the entire community.She was born in Columbus,Ohio to Corrina Smith Huston and Rolla Solomon Huston,a private business owner and politician.As the only child of "learned parents" there were always books around the family home and growing up,Mollie developed and interest in public affairs.She married Dr.James S.Lee in 1935 and had one son,James S. Lee Jr.While attending Howard University,Mollie worked as a student library assistant under the direction A.C. Williams,the man she described as the first black librarian to ever receive a library degree in this country.Mollie acknowledged A.C. as the inspiration for future efforts as a pioneering librarian.After earning an A.B. from Howard University,she received a scholarship to attend library school at Columbia University.Upon earning a bachelor of library science from Columbia University,Mollie returned to North Carolina in 1930 and began working as a Liberian at Shaw University.During her five-year employment at the Shaw University Library,Mollie recognized the need among African-Americans in the surrounding community for special African American literature collection.She recognized that this need could be met through the services of a public library.In 1905 public library service was extended to African-American in Charlotte North Carolina Raleigh had to wait another thirty years.By 1935 there were only twelve African-American public libraries in North Carolina,little action was taken in most areas of North Carolina to open libraries to African-Americans.Mollie was an advocate for bringing a library that would serve African-Americans to Raleigh.She and a group of community members met in 1935 with the white mayor,George A.Isley,to discuss the creation of a public library that would  serve African-Americans.Fulfilling a goal to establish an African-American literary collection at a library, the Richard B.Harrison Public Library opened on November 12,1935.Mollie valued community outreach and frequently brought the library to patrons when they were unable to visit the library themselves.Her actions encouraged community members to use the library and its resources.Despite trying economic conditions,the library's resources continued to expand due Mollie's efforts.In addition to establishing a library and services for African Americans in Raleigh,Mollie also assisted in the training of future librarians.Library science students Atlanta University,North Carolina Central University,and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill learned from firsthand experiences at the Harrison Library under the direction Mollie.She served  as the supervisor of Negro School Libraries in North Carolina from 1946-1953.Mollie was known as a "librarian's librarian.Reflecting on career as a librarian,she experienced,"i don't know of anything else that can help anyone grow more than in a library.Mollie told a radio audience in 1951," public is the recorded memory of mankind,serving the community.Its function is to make available to all,information  and through in all fields of human knowledge and experience and to help each person,whatever his interest may be,to find and use the books and other library facilities and material which best serve his needsDuring her her thirty-seven year career at the Harrison Library evolve from a tiny,one-room storefront library on Hargett Street to a $ 300,000 structure on New Bern Avenue.She retired from a forty-two year library career on June 30,1972 to "have fun and do some things I have not had time for.