By Ella McDonald
Carrie Robinson in 1969. Source: American Library Association Archives.
On May 14, 1969, Carrie Coleman Robinson, a Black school librarian in Alabama, brought a landmark case to the U.S. District Court. After being passed over for a promotion, Robinson sued Alabama’s Department of Education alleging that she had been denied equal protection as a department employee because of her race. Robinson’s case, and long career as a librarian, reveals much about the Jim Crow South and librarianship in the civil rights era.
Carrie Coleman Robinson was born in Mississippi in 1906 and began her career as a librarian serving Black schools in South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana before settling in Alabama.
. . . In 1962, Robinson was hired as Negro School Library Supervisor in Alabama’s Department of Education. In 1966, while serving in this position, federal funds became available to improve secondary school libraries across the nation. Alabama’s Department of Education list of viable candidates for a supervisor position excluded Carrie Robinson, despite her high qualifications, and the position went to an underqualified white person. It was later found that department officials routinely failed to advertise and recruit for applications from Black people compared to similarly situated white people.
Continue reading ALA Hidden Figures: Carrie Robinson by Ella McDonald at the American Library Association.
Twitter
Google plus
LinkedIn