Four Black American Librarians Changing the Future

There’s something incredible about the very idea of a library, about a place we can go to surround ourselves with books and learning. But perhaps sometimes we take this for granted. Maybe we assume that libraries have always been here, and always will be.

But the only reason we have libraries in the first place – the only reason they are accessible, welcoming places, for all – is because of the amazing work and sacrifice of people who have gone before us.

Here, we’re looking at four stories of inspiring, influential people. People who shattered the boundaries that separated the African-American community from the power and potential of libraries. And who laid the foundation for so many lives and careers to flourish.

Edward C. Williams – The First Black Librarian in the Country

Everyone on this list is a trailblazer and pioneer, but all follow in the footsteps of Edward Williams. From Cleveland, Ohio, Williams became an assistant librarian at the Western Reserve University. After only two years, he’d become the library’s director.

This would have been an enormous achievement for anyone. But for a young black man in Cleveland in 1894, this was something incredible. Over the next decades, he would work in a number of director and head librarian positions, sowing the seeds for the great people who would follow him.

Williams was also a celebrated author and translator. He translated many works from French, German, Italian, and Spanish into English, and also published his own poems, articles, and short stories. His novel When Washington Was In Vogue, originally serialized as The Letter of Davy Carr, has become one of the paramount works of Harlem Renaissance literature.

Dorothy B. Porter – The Revolutionary Organizer

It was the parents of Dorothy Porter – neé Burnett – who first set her on the path of education. With their blessing, she attended Howard University in DC, eventually gaining a master’s degree in library science from Columbia in New York City.

She would return to Howard University, working as the institution’s head librarian, and developing what would become the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center. It was while she was working at Howard that she recognized something very wrong with their traditional Dewey Decimal classification system – it was inherently racist, associating African American-related scholarship with either slavery (DDC 325) or colonization (DDC 326).

Porter developed her own classification system – one that would make black literature and academic work more accessible to all, and free it from such grim and reductive associations. All students who use Howard’s library to this day, are benefiting from the revolutionary work of Dorothy B. Porter.

Sadie Peterson Delaney – A Pioneer of Reading Therapy

Sadie Johnson was born in Rochester, New York in 1889, and recognized her calling in life from an early age. She trained as a librarian, working at the New York Public Library’s Harlem branch until late 1923. In New York, Sadie made it her mission to bring books and reading to all, holding inclusive reading programs that catered to the entire local community, not just a select few of its members.

But it was in Tuskegee, Alabama that Sadie did her most famous work. Then known as Sadie Peterson, after her first husband, she set about transforming the library at the Veterans Administration Hospital in the city. This library, she decided, would become a beacon of hope for all who stepped inside.

Sadie married her second husband, Rudicel A. Delaney in 1928, giving her the name she is most often known by to this day. But it was with her work that she carved out her own place in history. Sadie was a pioneer of bibliotherapy, which she described as “the treatment of patients through selected reading”. In her 34 years at the hospital in Tuskegee, Sadie touched the lives of countless number of patients, many of whom would have been close to giving up hope.

Clara Stanton Jones – The First Black ALA President

Hailing from St. Louis, Missouri, Clara Stanton Jones fell in love with the library at an early age. This led to a lengthy and triumphant career as an educator and librarian, during which she challenged the boundaries placed on women – and in particular, black women – by the authorities and the social convention of the age.

In 1976, Clara was elected as the first black president of the American Library Association. She became a strong advocate for libraries as forces of social good – institutions that could counteract racism and prejudice across American and beyond. She was later appointed Commissioner to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science by President Carter, where she continued her excellent work as one of America’s pre-eminent librarians.

An Inspiring History

This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are so many names I haven’t covered here, like Eliza Atkins Gleason and her scholarly work on African American library access in the southern states, or Carla Hayden, who has been serving as Librarian of Congress since 2016 – the first African American, and the first woman, to do so.

There are so many stories out there, of people who have made the library their life’s work and have changed the landscape forever. I implore you to take some time to discover these stories. You’re sure to find something incredible, something inspiring and uplifting, something earth-shattering.