History of Blacks in Libraries on ALA Blog

Early Diversity (?) Efforts: The "Work with Negroes Round Table," 1922-23

At the 1922 Annual Conference in Detroit, about 100 librarians attended the first annual meeting of the Work with Negroes Round Table, chaired by Ernestine Rose of the New York Public Library.

The reports on the Round Table's meetings published in the ALA Bulletin are a bizarre mix of overt racism, progressive ideas, and overt racism masquerading as progressive ideas. They make for lively, if often unsettling, reading.
Read more at the CentenniAL Blog
3/27/07—Greg Landgraf, Editorial Assistant, American Libraries