100 Years of Black History Month: Honoring the Librarians

Each February the United States celebrates Black History Month. The 2026 celebration is particularly notable because it marks 100 years since the birth of this official recognition of the achievements of Black Americans. This year the “the founders of Black History Month urge us to explore the impact and meaning of Black history and life commemorations in transforming the status of Black peoples in the modern world.”

The 2026 Black History Month theme is “A Century of Black History Commemorations.” Previous Black History Month themes have included African Americans in the arts and the vote, the crisis in Black education, and Black resistance. Last year, we blogged about African Americans and labor.

To celebrate Black History Month 2026, we want to honor the legacy of Black librarians.

While libraries are now known as spaces of belonging and inclusivity, the history of libraries and librarianship tells a different story. Following the Civil War, Black Americans were prohibited from using libraries and excluded from library spaces in many states across the country, causing them to form their own libraries.

In 1961 nine Tougaloo College students staged a sit-in to protest segregation at the Jackson Public Library in Mississippi. The nine were arrested and found guilty of breach of the peace

The Supreme Court’s “separate but equal” decision in *Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 paved the way for libraries to become legally segregated. The case was overturned by [Brown v. Board of Education](https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483) in 1954, but racism in library spaces persisted with denial of services, prohibitions on obtaining library cards, and even denial of physical entry. In 1964 Henry Brown attempted to enter a Louisiana branch library to request [The Story of the Negro](https://archive.org/details/bwb_T2-DNG-594)*. The librarian agreed to acquire the book for him via interlibrary loan. However, Brown was prohibited from being at the library in the first place, so he and several others staged a sit-in protest during his visit. He was arrested and his case made it to the US Supreme Court in 1966, which held that the police officers violated his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

The librarian profession has also seen a great deal of racial disparity, which sadly persists even today. Here is a look at some of the iconic Black librarians who have worked tirelessly throughout history to create inclusive library spaces, challenge stereotypes, eliminate racism, and promote literacy and the freedom to read.

Edward C. Williams

Edward C. Williams earned his Master of Library Science in New York in 1898, making him the first professionally trained Black librarian in the United States. He had already been serving as assistant librarian at Case Western Reserve University’s Hatch Library when he took a sabbatical to pursue his credentials. In addition to being a librarian, Williams was a published author and one of the founding members of the Ohio Library Association. He was in the process of working on his PhD in library science when he passed away suddenly in 1929.

Edward C. Williams

Augusta Baker

Augusta Baker was hired as a children’s librarian in New York City in 1937. She was a beloved librarian who led an effort to create a collection of children’s books that broke harmful and racist stereotypes by selecting books positively portraying people of color. Not only did she collect books, but she was an author herself and worked with writers and publishers to encourage them to create books portraying BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities in a positive light. Baker’s efforts inspired other libraries to do the same. In 1953 she became the first African American librarian to be hired as an administrator in the New York Public Library system and was a consultant on Sesame Street. Following her retirement from the New York Public Library, Baker moved to South Carolina and became the story-teller-in-residence at the University of South Carolina, where the university’s library school now hosts an annual festival in her honor. Baker’s life and career were immortalized in an award-winning children’s book in 2024, *Go Forth and Tell*.

A children’s book recounts the life of Augusta Baker and her quest to champion Black stories, writers, and librarians

Dorothy Burnett Porter Wesley

Dorothy B. Porter was a librarian at Howard University in the 1920s when she was given an assignment to create a collection documenting Black history and life. At the time, the Dewey Decimal System only classified books about African Americans under slavery and colonization. Porter expanded the university cataloging system in order to reclassify the collection. She is credited with desegregating Dewey, and her work became a model for libraries across the country.

Dorothy Burnett Porter Wesley

Dr. Carla Hayden

Dr. Carla Hayden was sworn in as the 14th Librarian of Congress by Chief Justice John Roberts in 2016. She was the first African American to hold the position as the leader of our national library. Dr. Hayden began her career as a children’s librarian in the Chicago Public Library System in the 1970s. She was the first African American to receive Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year Award in 1995 and was President of the American Librarian Association from 2003–2004. In her career she created outreach services that provided homework assistance and college counseling for teens in Baltimore and helped usher in new generations of librarians by teaching library and information science at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Hayden was fired from her position at the Library of Congress in 2025, in a controversial decision by President Donald Trump.

Dr. Carla Hayden

Further Reading

One blog post cannot possibly cover all the contributions to the profession or the incredible legacy of Black librarians in the United States. To learn more, we recommend these books and links for further reading:

*Richard Wright and the Library Card* (1997) by William Miller, illustrated by Gregory Christie

*Dorothy Porter Wesley at Howard University: Building a Legacy of Black History* (2014) by Janet Sims-Wood, PhD

*The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism* (2014) by Wayne A. Wiegand and Shirley A. Wiegand

*Not Free, Not for All: Public Libraries in the Age of Jim Crow* (2015) by Cheryl Knott

*Freedom Libraries: The Untold Story of Libraries for African Americans in the South* (2019) by Mike Selby

*In Silence or Indifference: Racism and Jim Crow Segregated Public School Libraries* (2024) by Wayne A. Wiegand

[embed]One of the earliest civil rights sit-ins of any kind happened in 1939 at the segregated Alexandria Public Library in Virginia

*Celebrating African American Librarians and Historic Figures* (Central Michigan University Libraries)

*Unsung Heroes That Helped Desegregate Public Libraries* by D. Nichole Brown (Oakland Public Library)

*Service & Segregation: A Look Back *(Library of Virginia)

*Separate — and Unequal* (American Libraries Magazine)

*A Revisionist History of Andrew Carnegie’s Library Grants to Black Colleges* by Shaundra Walker (Georgia College and State University)

Las Vegas librarian Billy Allen (“Mr. Billy the Librarian”) uses his social media presence to highlight and amplify the work of Black librarians, including several posts for Black History Month. His content can be found on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. (LE)