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Abstract: “When they Dared to be Powerful”: Telling the stories of Black Librarianship
“When they Dared to be Powerful”: Telling the stories of Black Librarianship
Storytelling is a critical 21st century skill of librarianship. Stories, embedded in deep and nuanced layers of cultural and other contexts, have the potential for positive message sharing and damaging culture stealing, and they have the great capacity to inform current library practices and understanding of the profession. Librarianship has a history of storytelling that stretches back more than 130 years, but the primary emphasis has been on telling stories to children. But what about the stories *inside* librarianship that have been erased, lost, suppressed, and are begging to be told and shared?
This presentation will highlight stories of Black librarians from several scholarly academic research projects being conducted for a forthcoming course on Black Librarianship to be taught at the University of South Carolina in summer 2025. Black librarianship stories are being sourced from archival materials; selected stories will include, but are not limited to:
• The GSLS Carnegie Scholars (University of Illinois)
• Augusta Baker (University of South Carolina)
• Charlemae Rollins (the DuSable Museum)
• Vivian Harsh and other Black librarians from the Chicago Public Library
• Jean Blackwell Hutson and other Black librarians from the New York Public Library
• Black women librarians featured in the forthcoming edited collection “When they Dare to be Powerful": The Legacy of Black Women in Librarianship (ALA Editions-Neal Schuman)
• Black women librarians featured in a special double issue on Black women librarians in the journal Libraries: Culture, History, and Society (2022, 6(1)).
The work of prioritizing the stories of Black librarianship is inspired by a spirit of Sankofa. Sankofa is an African word from the Akan tribe in Ghana which means "to go back and get it.” Sankofa tells us that “’it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot’. Sankofa teaches us the importance of learning from the past to build the future” (North Carolina Central University, n.d.).
These forerunners and trailblazers of Black librarianship, of librarianship writ large, deserve to be celebrated and have their stories studied and heeded as we continue to work towards a more diverse, just, and equitable profession.
North Carolina Central University(Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity). (n.d.). Sankofa: Learning from the past to build the future. Sankofa: Learning from the Past to Build the Future | African American Cultural Center | NC State University. https://diversity.ncsu.edu/aacc/sankofa-learning-from-the-past-to-build-the-future/.
Storytelling is a critical 21st century skill of librarianship. Stories, embedded in deep and nuanced layers of cultural and other contexts, have the potential for positive message sharing and damaging culture stealing, and they have the great capacity to inform current library practices and understanding of the profession. Librarianship has a history of storytelling that stretches back more than 130 years, but the primary emphasis has been on telling stories to children. But what about the stories *inside* librarianship that have been erased, lost, suppressed, and are begging to be told and shared?
This presentation will highlight stories of Black librarians from several scholarly academic research projects being conducted for a forthcoming course on Black Librarianship to be taught at the University of South Carolina in summer 2025. Black librarianship stories are being sourced from archival materials; selected stories will include, but are not limited to:
• The GSLS Carnegie Scholars (University of Illinois)
• Augusta Baker (University of South Carolina)
• Charlemae Rollins (the DuSable Museum)
• Vivian Harsh and other Black librarians from the Chicago Public Library
• Jean Blackwell Hutson and other Black librarians from the New York Public Library
• Black women librarians featured in the forthcoming edited collection “When they Dare to be Powerful": The Legacy of Black Women in Librarianship (ALA Editions-Neal Schuman)
• Black women librarians featured in a special double issue on Black women librarians in the journal Libraries: Culture, History, and Society (2022, 6(1)).
The work of prioritizing the stories of Black librarianship is inspired by a spirit of Sankofa. Sankofa is an African word from the Akan tribe in Ghana which means "to go back and get it.” Sankofa tells us that “’it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot’. Sankofa teaches us the importance of learning from the past to build the future” (North Carolina Central University, n.d.).
These forerunners and trailblazers of Black librarianship, of librarianship writ large, deserve to be celebrated and have their stories studied and heeded as we continue to work towards a more diverse, just, and equitable profession.
North Carolina Central University(Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity). (n.d.). Sankofa: Learning from the past to build the future. Sankofa: Learning from the Past to Build the Future | African American Cultural Center | NC State University. https://diversity.ncsu.edu/aacc/sankofa-learning-from-the-past-to-build-the-future/.