"Augusta-Braxton-Baker."(April 1,1911-February 23,1998)

Was an African American librarian and storyteller,renowned for her contributions to children's literature. 


She was born in Baltimore,Maryland.Both of her parents were schoolteachers,who instilled in her love of reading.During the day while her parents worked,her grandma,Augusta Fax (from whom she received her name) cared for and told her her stories.Augusta  delighted in these stories,carrying her love for them throughout her life.She learned to read before starting elementary school,later enrolling in the (racially segregated ) black high school where her daddy taught,and graduating at the age of 16.Augusta then entered the University of Pittsburgh,where she both met and married James Baker by the end of her sophomore year.


Relocating with James to New York,Augusta sought to transfer to Albany Teacher's College  (now the State University of New York at Albany),only to be met with racial opposition from the college.it was then Eleanor the wife of  Franklin Roosevelt (who was then the Governor of New York),Eleanor,who was on the board of the Albany Interracial Council (now the Albany Urban League) and heavily advocated for Augusta's successful transfer.Through the college did not want to admit,African Americans,they also did not want to oppose the the governor's wife,Augusta was admitted.She completed her education there,earning a B.A. degree in education in 1933 and a B.S. in library science in 1934.


After graduation,Augusta taught for a few years,until she was hired in 1937 as the children's librarian at the New York Public Library's 135th Street Branch (now the Countee Cullen regional branch) in Harlem.


In 1939,the branch began an effort to find and collect children's literature that portrayed African American people as something other than "servile buffoons," speaking in a rude dialect,and other such stereotypes.This collection,founded by Augusta as the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Children's Books,led to to the publication of the first of a number of bibliographies of books for and about African American children.Augusta furthered this project by encouraging authors,illustrators,and publishers,to produce,as well as libraries to acquire,books depicting African Americans in a favorable light.


In 1953,she was appointed storytelling Specialist and Assistant Coordinator of Children's Services.Not long after that,she became Coordinator of Children's services in 1961,becoming the first African American librarian in an administrative position in the New York Public Library.In this role,she over saw children's program in the entire New York Public Library system and set policies for them.During this time,Augusta also figured prominently in the American Library Association's Children's Services Division (now the Association for Library Services to Children),having served as its president.Additionally,she chaired the committee that awarded the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott Medal.Furthermore,Augusta influenced many children's authors and illustrators- such Maurice Sendak,Madeleine L'Engle,Jack Keats,and John Steptoe-While in this position.She also worked as a consultant for the then newly created children's T.V. series Sesame Street.


In 1974,Augusta retired from the New York Public Library.In 1980,she returned to librarianship to assume the newly created storyteller-in-Residence position at the University of South Carolina;this was also the first such position in any American University at the time.She remained there until her second retirement in 1994.During her time there,she cowrote a book entitled Storytelling: Art and Technique with colleague Ellin Green,which was published in 1987.


First recipient of the of the E.P.Dutton-John Macrae Award (1953)


Parents Magazine medal Award (1966)


ALA Grolier Award (1968)


Women's National Book Association,constance Lindsay Skinner Award (1971)


Clarence Day Award (1975)


Honorary Doctorate from St.John's University (1980)


Catholic Library Association's Regina Medal (1981)


Honorary Doctorate from the University of South Carolina (1986)


Second recipient of ALSC Distinguished Service Award (1993)

"BarbarCyrus" (October 13,1917-September 23,2011)

From  Minneapolis Minnesota she was one of two daughters of Robert & Eva

Mallory.Her daddy was a waiter at one of  the downtown hotels in Minneapolis (the Curtis).The Cyrus family had moved to Minnesota as part of the Great Migration of Southern African American from the south in the early 20 Century.Barbara family received many treats from white Minneapolis residents for moving to a neighborhood that was 'off limits' to African Americans.Undaunted,her family endured and Barbara graduated from Minneapolis Central High School in 1935.

After High School she attended the University of Minnesota and worked in the library at the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement house in Minneapolis,which along,with the Hallie Q.Brown Center in St.Paul,served as a social center for African American University students,Barbara once commented about those years saying,"We had fraternity and sorority dances at Phyllis Wheatley and basketball tournaments and plays."


An active member of St.Thomas Episcopal Church,in 1954,Barbara also founded the "Twin cities Book Club," an African-American woman's literary club that also brought in African American dignitaries to speak.She was also a member of the Pragmatia Sorority and the Socialities Club.She worked as an editor for Honeywell and wrote her own column for the Minneapolis Spokesman and Twin Cities Observer newspaper for many years.Barbara was one of the journalists who accompanied the African American delegation to the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago,covering it for the Minneapolis Spokesman.

In her later years the encountered health issues that confined her to a wheel chair,yet she remained very active in the Minneapolis and St.Paul Community.Barbara was the focal point of a 2002 University of Minnesota Alumni articles on the history of African American representation at the school.Barbara died of cancer.

"Dudley-Randall" (January 14,1914-August 5,2000)

Publisher,poet,and librarian,was born in Washington,D.C.,the son of Arthur Clyde Randall,a Congregational minister,and Ada Viola Randall, a teacher and later a full-time housewife.He was the middle son of five children.


The Randall family moved to Detriot in 1920.Arthur instilled in his sons his interest in politics and would take them to hear African American speakers such as W.E.B.Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson.Dudley inherited his love of poetry from both parents,he mirrored his mother's calmer demeanor.Dudley wrote his first poem when he was four years old,and his first published poem appeared in the Detroit Free Press when he was thirteen.He excelled in his studies,graduating from high school at sixteen.He found work at a Ford Motor Company foundry,and he later worked for the postal service as a clerk and later carrier.


Dudley met the poet Robert Hayden in 1937.their friendship served to streghten Dudley interest in poetry by providing him with the intellectual stimulation he found lacking in his work life.He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the South Pacific during World War War II.He returned to his postal job doing following the war and began attending Wayne University,where he earned a B.A. in English in 1949.After receving his master's degree in Library Science in 1951 from the University of Michigan,Dudley began his career in librarianship.In 1956 he began work in the Detroit public library system,where he remained until he became reference librarian and poet-in-residence at the University of Detriot in 1969.He retired from the university in 1976.


In 1962 Dudley began participating in events at Boone House,an African American cultural center founded by the poet Margaret Danner.His association with the Boone House poets helped to focus Dudley's writing by welcoming him into a supportive and artistic environment.He later collaborated with Margaret on the book Poem Counterpoem (1966),the first book published by Dudley's Broadside Press.


Two events led to to the founding of Broadside Press-the September 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham Alabama,in which four African American children were killed,and the and the assassination of President John F.Kennedy later that year.In response to these tragedies,Dudley wrote two poems,"The Ballard of Birmingham" and " Dressed all in Pink."Both poems were set to music by folk singer Jerry Moore in 1965,in order to protect his copyright interests,Dudley entry into publishing and the establishingment of Broadside,so named for the format of its initial publications.


In May of 1966 Dudley attended a writer's conference at Fisk University,where he received permission from Robert Hayden,Margaret Walker,and Melvin B.Tolson to publish their poems in his broadside series.These,along with Dudley's poems and one by Gwendolyn Brooks, formed the first six broadsides from the press,which grouped together as Poems of the Negro Revolt.


From its humble beginnings,Broadside Press quickly became a small but vital outlet for African American writers at a time when they often experienced difficulties in finding publishers.Dudley described the press as "one of the institutions that African American people are creating by trial and error and out of necessity in our reaching for self-determination and "independence."During Dudley tenure,Broadside Press published ninety broadsides and fifty-five books by authors such as Etheridge Knight,Don L.Lee(later Haki R.Madhubuti),Sonia Sanchez,Nikki Giovanni,Audre Lorde,Amiri Baraka Langston Hughes,Alice Walker, and others.


Broadside's authors often exhibited a fierce loyalty to the press.Some refused royalties so that proceeds from their books could be returned to the press.Like most small presses,Broadside operated on a minute budget,and mounting debts forced Dudley to sell the operation in 1977.


While involved in the busy affairs of the press,Dudley continued to write poetry.Cities burning,a thematic collection of poems,appeared following the 1967 rebellion in Detriot.The early 1970s,were a productive period for Dudley.A collection of love poems,Love You,appeared in 1970 and his first major collection,More to Remember:Poems of Four Decades,was published the next year.In addition to his own work,Dudley edited three anthologies between 1967 and 1971:For Malcolm:Poems on the Life and Death Malcolm X (coedited with Margaret G.Burroughs),Black Poetry:A Supplement to Anthologies Which Exclude Black Poets and The Black Poets.


After the financial difficulties of Broadside Press and its sale,Dudley entered a period of depression and stopped writing for three years.He returned to poetry in 1980,and the following year saw the publication of  A Litany of Friends:New and Selected Poems,as well as his designation as the first poet laureate of  Detriot.In 1983,Dudley returned as the publisher of Broadside Press;he sold the press for a final time two years later but remained as consultant.


Dudley continued to write poetry until his death.The numerous awards and accolades presented to Dudley throughout his life were indicative of the significant contributions he made to African American poetry,as well as to American literature in general.By publishing young black publishing young African American poets when outlets for their work were not readily available,as well as by writing a body of work that mirrored the struggles and triumphs of African Americans.

"Mayme Agnew Clayton" (August 4,1923-October 13,2006)

Was a librarian,and founder,president & spiritual leader of the Western States Black Research and Education Center(WSBREC),the largest privately

held collection of African-American historical materials in the world.The collection of African American materials in the world.The collection represents the core holdings of the Mayme A. Clayton Library Museum and Cultural Center (MCL) located in Culver City, California.Over the course of 45,years Mayme single-handedly and with her own resources collected more than 30,000 rare and out-of-prints books.The collection is considered one of the most important for African American materials and consists of 3.5 million items on the topic of African-American culture,according to UCLA Magazine.Her collection grew from her work as a librarian,first at the University of Southern California and later at the University of California,Los Angeles where she began to build an African American collection."Ms. Clayton,an avid golfer,traveled for her sport,trolling for rare finds wherever she went.The centerpiece of the collection that grew this way is a signed copy of Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects,Religious and Moral,from 1773.First published by an African American descent,the book was acquired for $600 from a New York dealer in 1973.It 2002 it was appraised at $30,000,"according to the New York Times.Other items in her collection include movie posters (one featuring Stepin Fetchit),newspaper clippings regarding actress Dorothy Dandridge,and a letter handwritten by educator Booker T. Washington.

"Miriam Matthews" (August 6,1905-June 23,2003)

Was the first African American librarian in the Los Angeles Public Library System.Hired in 1927,she served in the library until her retirement in 1960 where she was instrumental in preserving the history and cultural heritage of African American Angelenos.
She was born in Pensacola Florida to Ruben & Fannie Matthews.Two years later the Matthews family moved to Los Angeles.She earn her B.A.degree and librarianship certificate from the University of California,Berkeley in 1926 & 1927,respectively,and her Master's degree in library science from the University of Chicago in 1945.
In 1927,Miriam was appointed to the Los Angeles Public Library system,the first African American professional librarian to be hired in the city.She served as a branch librarian  until 1949,when she became a regional librarian and served on numerous administrative committees.In addition to her professional work,Miriam was involved in progressive and community-oriented civic life in Los Angeles,active in various civil rights,youth relations,education,history,and art organizations.From 1946-1948,she served as chair of the Committee for Intellectual Freedom for the California Library Association.
Miriam,often called the "dean of Los Angeles black history," also used her professional skills and her position in the community to draw attention to the contribution of African Americans and people of color to California history.As early as 1940 she was gathering primary source material and publishing articles on early African American history in California.She was instrumental in initiating what was then called "Negro History Week"in Los Angeles in the 1950s.During Los Angeles'Bicentennial celebration in 1981,Miriam successfully proposed and fought for the erection of a memorial honoring the multiethnic founders of the city.Because of her work,Miriam received numerous awards from the California Historical Society,the Los Angeles City Council,and media organizations,in addition to a 1984 State House of Representatives Award.Perhaps her most lasting contribution,was her research into African American history in California.Over her lifetime,Miriam created an archive of books,documents,photographs,and art documenting African-American life in California from 1781-to the present.Many items in her collection were donated to museums or African American library archives.The Miriam Matthews collection of photographs and documents at both the Los Angeles Public Library and the African American Museum and Library in Oakland reflect her lifelong work and achievement.

"Charlemae Rollins"(June 20,1897-Febr uary 3,1979)

Was a pioneering librarian,author & storyteller in the area of African American literature.During her thirty-one years as head librarian of the children's department at the Chicago Public Library as well as after her retirement,she instituted substantial reforms in children's literature.Charlemae was born in Yazoo City Mississippi,to Allen G.Hill,a farmer & Birdie Tucker Hill,a teacher.Her family moved to Beggs in Oklahoma Terrority hoping to find better living conditions,but discovered that African Americans were excluded from attending school.Undeterred,Charlemae family founded a school which she attended.After completing her elementary education,she attended African American high schools in St.Louis,Missouri,Holly Springs,Mississippi,and Quindoro,Kansas,where she graduated in 1916.After earning her teaching certificate,Charlemae taught at the school her family had set up before leaving to attend Howard University.She returned after a year to marry Joseph Walter Rollins on April 8,1918.The couple moved to Chicago in 1919,after Joseph returned from World War I.Their son,Joseph Walter Rollins,Jr.,was born in 1920.Charlemae became a children's librarian at the Chicago Public Library in 1927.Initially,she worked at the Hardin Square Branch Library, where she became known as a prolific storyteller.She did not earn a degree,Charlemae received library training from Columbia College in the summer of 1932,and the graduate program of the University of Chicago from 1934-1936.It is not surprising Charlemae chose to concentrate in children's literature,calling learning to read at a young age "the best thing I ever did.Her grandmother,former slave,was pivotal person in her life.She helped Charlemae cultivate her love for reading by allowing her access library.This passion helped drive Charlemae to become a librarian.Chicago's African American swelled as more families moved north for better education,work and living conditions.Racism was rampant,contrasting with the benign attitude towards African Americans before 1915.Since then,tensions,had progressed,and culminated in events like the Chicago Race Riots of 1919.In such an atmosphere,no library was founded for the community until the George Cleveland Hall Branch  opened in 1932.The first branch built in an African American neighborhood,the library had a variety of patrons from various racial & economic groups.Charlemae became the head of the children's department.Where she worked until retiring in 1963.
Charlemae worked with the library director,Vivian Harsh,to make the library welcoming to the multicultural socioeconomically diverse patrons.Under their guidance the library
hosted discussion groups,lectures,a Negro History Club,and book fairs.In addition to her work with children,Charlemae also set up a reading guidance clinic for parents.
Many notable African American writers visited the library,including Richard Wright,Zora Neale Hurtson,Margaret Walker,and Langston Hughes,with whom Charlemae developed a friendship.Beside these contributions to librarianship,she also taught at Morgan College in Baltimore,Maryland,and summers at Fisk University in Nashville Tennessee.She also began teaching a course in Children's Literature at Roosevelt University in 1949 and continued until 1979.

"Barbara Rose Johns"(1935-1991)

Was a young American civil rights hero who in 1951,at the age of 16,led a student strike for equal education at Moton High School in Farmville,Prince Edward County Virginia.After securing NAACP legal support,her suit became part of the historic 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case,Brown v.Board of Education,in which the court ruled against "separate but equal and thus ended de jure segregation in American public schools.Prince Edward County ultimately responded to the Brown Decision by closing its public schools from 1959-1964,the longest period of Massive Resistance in the nations history.She was born in New York City,New York.Her family had roots in Prince Edward County,Virginia,where they return to live.Her mama worked in Washington D.C.for the U.S.Navy,and her daddy operated the farm where the family resided.
The eldest of five children,Barbara had a younger sister,Joan Johns Cobb,and three younger brothers:Ernest;Roderick,who serve in
Vietnam as a dog handler and was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart;and Robert.
Her uncle was the prominent Reverend Vernon Johns,and outspoken activist for civil rights.When he visited Barbara and her family,he would ask the children questions about
African American history.This motivated Barbara and her siblings to study African American history,and Barbara,as well as her siblings,was influenced by Reverend Johns and his outspoken nature.
While living in Prince Edward County,she was educated in segregated public schools.In 1951,16 year-old Barbara was a junior at the all-African American Moton High School in Farmville.Across town was another school,open exclusively to white students.The resources available to each school,and the quality of the facilities were unequal.Barbara's school was designed and built to hold roughly 200 students by 1951 enrollment was twice that number.According to a first-person account from Barbara's sister Joan:

In the winter the school was very cold and a lot of times we had to put on jackets.Now,the students that sat closet to the wood stove were very warm and the ones who sat the farthest away were very cold.And i remember being cold a lot of times and sitting in the classroom with my jacket on.When it rained,we would get water through the ceiling.So there were lots of pails sitting around the classroom.And sometimes we had to raise our umbrellas to keep the water off our heads.It was very difficult setting for trying to learn.

Parents of the African American students appealed to the all-white school board to provide a larger and properly equipped facility.As a stopgap measure,the board erected several tar paper shacks to handle the overflow of students.Frustrated with the separate and unequal facilities,Barbara decided to take action.
She met with several classmates and they all agreed to help organize a student strike.On April 23 the plan she initiated was put into action.The principal of the school was tricked into leaving by being told that some students were downtown causing trouble.While the principal was away,Barbara forged a memo for the principal telling the teachers to bring their classes o a special assembly.The teachers bought their classes and were surprised to find Barbara standing on the stage.She delivered a speech revealing her plans for a student strike in protest of the unequal conditions of the African American and white schools.The students agreed to participate,and on that day they marched down to the county courthouse to make officials aware of the large difference in quality between white & African American schools.
While the strike was being carried out,Barbara and other fellow students sought legal counsel from the NAACP.The NAACP agreed assist as long as the suit would be for an integrated school system,and just equal facilities.A month later,the NAACP filed Davis v.County Board of Prince Edward County in federal court.The court upheld segregation in Prince Edward County,and the NAACP appealed to the U.S.Supreme Court.Davis v.Prince Edward County,along with four other cases,became part of the case Brown v.Board of Education.As Davis was the only case in Brown initiated by student protest,it seem by some as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.Shortly after the strike,Barbara's parents fearing for her safety sent her to Montgomery, Alabama to live with her uncle.After the strike,Barbara lived out the rest of her life in relative peace.She married Reverend William Powell and raised five children.Her commitment to education moved her to become a Liberian.She served in this profession until her death.

"Rev.Thomas Blue"(April 2,1870-1935)

The son of former slaves,Thomas was born in Farmville Virginia.He graduated from

Hampton University in 1888.Thomas taught at in Virginia,and earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1898 from Richmond Theological Seminary.Around the turn of the last century,he was a secretary of the YMCA,serving Spanish-American war soldiers,moving to Louisville in the same capacity from 1899-1905.In 1905,Thomas was chosen to head the Louisville Western Branch Library.This was the first public library in the nation to serve an African American clientele with an exclusively African American Staff.What began in three rented rooms of a private home on the West side of town moved to a dedicated building built by Andrew Carnegie in 1908.In 1914,Thomas opened Louisville's second Carnegie branch library for African Americans in East Louisville.In 1919,with the addition of the two new branches a "Colored Department" was created,the first example of such an organization in any public library system in the United States.Thomas lead the department which included eight assistants,two junior high schools,15 stations and 80 classroom collections in 29 buildings.A total of 99 centers for the circulations of books for home use in 46 buildings in Louisville and Jefferson County made up his administrative duties.Rev.Blue spoke of himself as "untrained" like Dewey was untrained,"his most far-reaching work was the creation of an apprentice class for those wanting to enter library service.Thomas class drew students from far away as Houston and led the establishment of the Hampton Library School in Virginia.He was a respected leader in the civic,religious,and educational life of the Louisville African Amrican community.He served the Louisville Free Public Library from 1905 until his death 30 years later,achieving national recognitional as a pioneer in the field of public service.

"Virginia Proctor Powell Florence" (October 1,1897-1991)

Born in Wilkinsburg Pennsylvania,Florence Virginia Proctor Powell received her early education in local public schools.After both parents died,she moved to Pittsburgh to live with her aunt.In 1915,she graduated from Fifth Avenue High School High School.She also received her Bachelor's degree in English from Oberlin College in 1919.Her first job was in St.Paul,Minnesota,with the YWCA'S Colored girls'section as secretary.After a year,she returned to Pittsburgh to work in her Aunt's beauty parlor.Her aspirations for employment in the Pittsburgh school system were discouraged because of racism but her fiance Charles,aware of her love of children and literature,introduced Florence  to the idea of a career in library science.After applying to the Carnegie Library School,she was admitted in 1922,and completed the course of study within a year.Unfortunately,because school officials were uncertain about placing the first African-American graduate,Florence did not receive her diploma until several years later.She began her new career in 1923 at the New York Public Library,continuing for four years.Upon taking and passing the New York high school librarian exam,she was appointed librarian at the Seward High School in Brooklyn,remaining there until 1931.That same year she married her fiancé and moved to Jefferson City,Missiouri,where Charles was president and she was called "the "First Lady of Lincoln University.The couple moved back east in 1938.Florence resumed her career,and Charles became chairman of the English department at Virginia Union University in Richmond.She was also librarian at Cardoza High School in Washington D.C..,until 1945.After an an illness,she continued at Maggie L.Walker Senior High School.Florence was widowed in 1974.

 

 

"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.

"Alma Smith Jacobs"(1916-1997)

She was the first African American to serve as the Montana State Librarian.She was a lifelong advocate of free access to library resources and was active in local and state civil rights causes.Alma Victoria Smith Jacobs was born in Lewistown Montana.She was one of five children born to Martin Luther Smith,a cook for the Great Northern Railroad,And Emma Louise Riley Smith,a prolific quilter whose works is registered with the Montana Historic Quilt Project.When she was six,her family moved to Great Falls,Montana.After high school,she received a scholarship to Talladega College in Alabama and graduated from there with a bachelor's degree in sociology and a minor in psychology in 1938.While Alma aspired to became a social worker,she was offered a job as a clerical assistant in the Talladega College library.She remained there for eight years as assistant librarian.During that time she received a scholarship to Columbia University's prestigious library school,and she traveled back and forth to New York City during the summers to take courses,earing a B.A. in library science in 1942.In 1946 Alma returned to Great Falls as a catalog librarian and later served as library director for the city's public from 1954-1973.During the 1960s,she was instrumental in the construction of the Great Falls Public Library building that opened in 1967.In 1973 Alma moved to Helena to served as the state's head librarian,a post held until 1981.While there she led the effort to centralize the state's vast library collections.A leader in the library community across the country,she was the first African American president of the Montana Library Association,and the first African American on the Executive Board of the American Library Association.In addition to her work on behalf of libraries,Alma was active in civil rights organizations and civil groups including the Montana Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and Humanities Montana,which she co-founded.She and her sister Lucille Smith Thompson,a reference librarian at Montana State University,developed a catalog of resources on Montana's black history which they titled The Negro in Montana:1800-1945 (1970).On December 15,Alma died in Helena.In 2009 the Great Falls Public Library dedicated a new outdoor plaza in her honor.The community also established the Alma Smith Jacobs Foundation to address social and economic issues.

"Dorothy Wesley Porter"(1905-1995).

A scholar-Librarian and bibliographer was born in Warrenton,Virginia.Her father Hayes Joseph Burnett,was a physician,and her mother Bertha Ball Burnett,a tennis champion.After receiving her A.B.,from Howard University IN 1928,she became the first African American woman to complete her graduate studies at Columbia University receiving a Bachelors (1931) and a Master (1932) of Science in Library Science.She joined the library staff at Howard University in 1928,and on December 29,married James Amos Porter.In 1930 University President W. Mordecai Johnson appointed her to organize and administer a Library of Negro Life and History incorporating the 3,00 titles presented in 1914 by Jesse Moorland.The library opened in 1933 as the Moorland Foundation.In In 1946 Howard  University purchased the Arthur Spingarn Collection.By the time she retired in 1973 the library,which was now called the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center,had over 180,000 books,pamphlets,manuscripts,and other primary sources.Over 43 years,Dorothy had successfully created a leading modern research library that served and international community of scholars.As a scholar,avid writer and researcher,Dorothy developed a wide variety of research tools and authoritative bibliographies based on her vast knowledge in the field that would become known as Black studies.A selected list of books by and about the Negro (1936),was one of the seeds of the field of African American studies.Other publications included "Early American Negro Writings:A Bibliographical Study,"published in The papers of the Bibliographical Society of American (1945);Early Negro Writing ,1760 to 1837 (1970);Afro-Brazilian;A working Bibliography (1978);The Redmond's of Salem,Massachusetts:A Nineteenth Century Family Revisited (1983);and William Cooper Nell:Nineteenth-Century African American Abolitionist-Historian-Integrationist;Selections From His Writings.(1832-1874) (2002).Dr.Porter has received numerous awards over her distinguished career.In 1944 she received the Julius Rosenwald Fellowship for research in Latin American Literature.She served as a Ford Foundation consultant to the National Library in Lagos,Nigeria (1962-1964),and attended the 1st International Congress of Africanists in Accra,Ghana.In 1973 she received a Ford Foundation study and travel grant which took her to Scotland,Ireland,England and Italy.In 1974 she received the Distinguished Alumini Award From Howard University.In 1980 the Conover-Porter Award was established,is is the most prestigious award for published works of bibliography or reference on Africa.In 1989 she received a fellowship from W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University.In that same year Moorland-Spingarn Reserch Center commenced the annual Dorothy Porter Wesley Lecture Series.In 1994 President Bill Clinton presented her with the National Endowment for the Humanities' Charles Frankel Award.Honorary Ph.D. degrees were bestowed on her from Susquehanna University (1971),Syracuse University (1989),and Radcliff College (1990).On November 29,1979 she married historian Charles H.Wesley,the former President of Wilberforce and Central State Universities in Ohio.Dorothy died in Fort Lauderdale,Florida.

"Adella Hunt Logan"(1863-December 12,1915)

Was a black woman of mixed heritage raised in Sparta, Georgia in the 1860s.She was raised by a black mother who had eight children by a white farmer who served in the Confederacy.Her father did not live with the family,but provided for them financially and paid for her

education.Educated at the Bass Academy and then Atlanta University,She became the Tuskegee University first librarian.She met her husband,also a professor at Tuskegee,and gave birth to nine children.She suffered the loss of three of them before adulthood.Adella was a leader of women's suffrage, lecturing at major organizations like the National Association of Colored Women's conferences.She became a writer for the famous Crisis magazine and the NAACP.Adella made sure the Tuskegee library was stocked with women's rights information,and sessions were held.Her most famous work was an essay in 1902 called "What Are the Causes of the Great Mortality Among the Negroes of the Cities of the South,and how it is That Mortality to be Lessened?"By 1885,she had taken over as lady principal at Tuskegee when the first one, Oliva Davidson, married Booker T. Washington.By 1915,Adella was clearly suffering from depression.She was sent to Battle Creek Santiarium for treatment.Adella returned to Tuskegee after hearing Booker was sick.He died on November 14th,and Adella committed suicide on December 12th by Jumping from the top floor of campus building at Tuskegee.

'Vivian Gordon Harsh"(May 27, 1890-August 17,1960)

Was the first African American Librarian the Chicago Public Library system and a significant contributor to Chicago's Black Renaissance.In 1932 she was appointed head librarian of the George Cleveland Hall Branch,the city's first library built in an African American community.During her career,she developed a black history collection that could become a world-renowned resorce for residents and scholars.Vivian was boorn to Fenton and Maria (Drake) Harsh,both graduates of Fisk University.Fresh out of high school,she began work in 1909 as a junior clerk at the Chicago Public Library where she would remain during her 60-year career.In 1921, she received her B.A. in library science from Simmons College in Boston,Massachusetts,and later took courses at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Library Science.In 1924 Vivian became the city's first black professional librarian.Through her involvement with the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History founded by Carter G.Woodson,she recognized the need for library services on Chicago's south side,the heart of the city's African American community.Funding from philanthropist Julius Rosenwald allowed the basis for the George Hall C. Hall branch that opened in the Bronzeville neighborhood in 1932 with Vivian as its director.She and Charlemae Rollins,a children's librarian,developed the branch's substantial African American resources along with programming specifically for the black community.The collection began with over 100 books on African-American donated by George Bentley,founder of the Chicago branch of the NAACP.Operating in the 1920's without funding from the Chicago Public Library,Vivian expanded the collection through private donations and her personal contributions.The library itself became a Mecca for literary and cultural icons of the period including Richard Wright,Langston Hughes,Zora Neal Huston,and Gwendolyn Brooks,some of whom contributed manuscripts to the institution.The resources first accumulated by Harsh and Rollins in the 1920s have grown in the Vivian G.Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature,the largest of its kind in the Midwest and currently located at the city's Carter G. Woodson Regional Library.It includes 70,000 books and unique materials like the historic Illinois Writers Project "Negro in Illinois"paper.In 1958,after a serious illness,Vivian retired from the Chicago Public Library.She died two years later at the age of 70. In 2005, a city park near her childhood home was named in her honor.

"Miriam Matthews" (1905-2003)

Was the first African American librarian in the Los Angeles Public Library system.Hired in 1927,she served in the library until her retirement in1960 where she was instrumental in preserving the history and cultural heritage of black Angelenos.Miriam was born in Pensacola Florida to Ruben and Fannie Matthews.Two years later the Matthews family moved to Los Angeles.Miriam earring her B.A. degree and librarianship certificate from the University of California,Berkeley in 1926 and 1927,respectively,and her Master's degree in library science from the University of Chicago in 1945.In 1927,she was appointed to the Los Angeles Public system,the first black professional librarian to be hired by the city.She served as a branch librarian until 1949,when she became a regional librarian and served on numerous administrative committees.In addition to her professional work,Miriam was heavily involved on progressive and community-oriented civil life in Los Angeles,active in various civil rights,youth relations,education,history,and art organizations.From 1946 to 1948,she served as chair of the committee for the Intellectual Freedom for the California Library Association.Miriam often called the "dean of Los Angeles black history,"also used her professional skills and her position in the community to draw  attention to the contribution of African Americans and other people of to California history.As early as 1940 she was gathering primary source material and publishing articles on early black history in California.She was instrumental in initiating what was then called "Negro History Week"in Los Angele sin the 1950s.During Los Angeles Bicentennial celebration in 1981,Miriam successfully proposed and fought for the erection of a memorial honoring the multiethnic founders of the city.Because of her work she,received numerous awards from the California Historical Society,The Los Angeles City Council,and media organizations,in addition to a 1984 United States House of Representatives Award.Perhaps her most lasting contribution through,was her research into African- American history in in California.Over her lifetime,Miriam created an archive of books,documents,photographs,and art documenting African-American life in California from 1781-to the present.Many items for her collection were donated to museums or African American library archives.The Miriam Matthews collections of photograph and documents at both the Los Angeles Public Library and the African American Museum and Library in Oakland reflect her lifelong work and achievement.She died in Los Angeles on June 23,at age of 97.

"Daniel Alexander Payne Murray"(March 3 1852-March 31-1925)

Assistant librarian,Library of Congress;bibliographer,author,politician,and historian was the son of a freed slave.He was born in Baltimore, Maryland.In 1861,he went to work at the United States Senate Restaurant managed by his brother who was also a caterer.Daniel became the personal assistant to the Librarian of Congress,Ainsworth Rand Spofford at the age of nineteen.On April 2,1879 he married Anna Evans with whom he had seven children.By 1881 he had risen to become assistant librarian He joined the professional staff of the Library of Congress in 1871.He was eighteen years old,and only the second black American to work for the library.Ten years later Daniel was named assistant librarian,apposition he held for forty-one years.Daniel married educator Anna Jane Evans,and the couple became a major force in the social and civic life of the District of Columbia.Daniel began to compile a collection of books and pamphlets authored by African Americans at the request of Herbert Putnam,the successor to Ainsworth.The collection was to be an exhibition for the 1900 Paris Exposition on "Negro Authors."In 1900 Daniel published a list of the collection's holdings to date and appealed for additions to the list through donations.With in several months,his last had grown to eleven hundred titles.The Library of Congress's"Colored Author"Collection"originated from his efforts.Now known as the "Daniel A.P.Murray Pamphlet Collection,"it contains works dating from 1821 by such authors as Frederick Douglass,Booker T. Washington,Ida B. Wells-Barnett,Benjamin W. Arnett, Alexander Crummell.Daniel planned to expand his collection and create an encyclopedia of African American achievement,unfortunately,the project never received sufficient support to become a realty.Daniel was widely acknowledged as an authority on African American concerns.He was the first African-American member of the Washington Board of Trade,and testified before the House of Representatives about Jim Crow laws and the migration of African American from rural locations to urban areas.He was twice a delegate to the Republican National Convention and was a member of many other councils and organizations.He was also a prolific author,and a frequent contributor to African American journals,in particular The Voice of the Negro,He was also well known for his writings on African American history, including his monumental but uncompleted Historical and Biographical Encyclopedia of the Colored Race.Daniel personal library of African American works was bequeathed to the Library of Congress upon his death March 31.1925.