An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 8/9/2021
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"The one --and only-- good thing about segregation was that it fostered a school system in which black children were infused with black history and black heroes."
Today we examine the remarkable (and still ongoing!) list of achievements of librarian Jessie Carney Smith, Ph.D. Born in 1930 Greensboro, North Carolina, Jessie Carney and her siblings were raised in a loving, closely-knit family but, due to segregation laws, ran up against the stark contrast between rural and urban education settings. This realization started Jessie down a path to higher education; she earned her Bachelors' degree in Home Economics in 1950 but, disillusioned by the notion of such a degree only ever leading to a career in teaching, instead followed library science and eventually earned her Masters' from Vanderbilt.
Jessie took a job at Fisk University as secretary to head librarian Arna Wendell Bontemps (see Lesson #23 in this series), where she was exposed to what amounted to the country's most comprehensive and distinctive collection of black literature. In 1964 Smith became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in library science; the following year she succeeded Bontemps as Fisk University's head librarian. From this role she was able to explore her other passion --writing-- and over the next 20 years, even as she pushed to modernize the library's archives and media program, she began assembling a collection of biographies of Black women whose contributions to American history were worthy of mention. Ultimately assembling a list of 1,000 names, Smith narrowed down the list with the help of an advisory board, and doled out individual assignments. The project was finally completed in 1991, and Notable Black American Women: Book I became an indispensable source of research. Additional volumes, as well as other equally in-depth publications, would follow --including 2021's Black Firsts: 500 Years of Trailblazing Achievements and Ground-Breaking Events.
"When I'm writing a biography, I would rather write about an obscure person than one who's well-known because I like to provide new or little-known information to people." #neverunderstimatealibrarian
Dr. Smith of course puts it into far better words than I or this entire series ever could; with her words in mind, I would invite you to pick up a copy of at least one of the following three books:
Notable Black American Women: Book I
https://www.amazon.com/Notable-Black-American-Women-Book/dp/0810347490
Notable Black American Women: Book II
https://www.amazon.com/Notable-Black-American-Women-Book/dp/0810391775
Notable Black American Women: Book III
https://www.amazon.com/Notable-Black-American-Women-Book/dp/0787664944
Next page - Lesson 103: Brian Stelfreeze