Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations
Black Caucus of the American Library Association
In 1968, Effie Lee Morris proposed that the African American members of the American Library Association (ALA) meet to discuss mutual interests and complaints. The ALA, though open to blacks, rarely addressed the needs of its African American members and often met in segregated southern cities where black members were sometimes humiliated. African American librarians encountered racism and segregation in the use of libraries, as applicants to library schools, and as employment competitors for professional librarian positions. Consequently, African American members of the ALA formed the Black Caucus of the ALA in 1970. The purpose of the caucus was to monitor any aspect of librarianship as it related to African Americans as librarians and library users, including the selection of books relating to African American history and culture in local libraries, the admission of blacks to library schools, the hiring and promotion of black librarians, and ALA meeting places and agendas. The caucus’s statement of purpose included provisions for analyzing, evaluating, and recommending to the ALA actions to address the needs of African American librarians and library users as well as methods for the improvement of black librarians’ status in areas of recruitment, development, advancement, and general working conditions.
The caucus also decided to review the records and analyze the platform statements of candidates for ALA offices and monitor the composition and activities of governing boards of public libraries throughout the United States in order to improve library services to the black community. The caucus’s first president, E.J.Josey, explained that the African American librarians were “especially concerned about the effects of institutional racism, poverty, and the continued lack of education, employment, and promotional” opportunities for African American librarians and other minorities.
The activities of the caucus were eagerly encouraged and aided by African American and other sympathetic leaders in various communities in the United States and in several African nations.
FURTHER READINGS
Cunningham, William D. “The Black Caucus of the American Library Association: The First Four Years.” In Activism in American Librarianship, 1962–73. Ed. Mary Lee Bundy and Frederick J.Stielow. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987.
Josey, E.J. “Black Caucus of the American Library Association.” In Handbook of Black Librarianship. Comp. and ed. E.J.Josey and Ann Allen Shockley. Littleton, Colo.: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1977.
Debra Newman Ham
This is the complete article, containing 377 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
View More Summaries on United States
