LHRT (Library History Round Table)

I was very pleased to see the American Library Association's June 26, 2020, statement that "accepts and acknowledges its role in upholding unjust systems of racism and discrimination against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color," but as I've said in at least one article I've published since that resolution was passed, "It is impossible for members of the nation's library community to fathom the full burden of that responsibility if such large chunks of that past ...remain unknown to the present." (Library Quarterly 91, July, 2021:266)   

Now comes an August 18, 2021, statement by the ALA Executive Board sparked largely by reaction to the controversy over critical race theory that concludes with the sentence:  "For more than 140 years, ALA has been the trusted voice of libraries, advocating for the profession and the library's role in enhancing learning and ensuring access to information for all."  

That last statement is simply not true.  For example, three months after ALA passed the original Library Bill of Rights (1939), Black students in Alexandria, Virginia, conducted a sit-in at the segregated white public library.  ALA said nothing, and did nothing in response.  (See Brenda Mitchell-Powell's forthcoming book on the subject.). During the 1960s Civil Rights Movement ALA filed several amicus briefs in censorship cases, but filed none on behalf of cases involving the young Black kids attempting to desegregate southern public library systems. (See Wayne A. and Shirley A. Wiegand, The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South, 2018).   Nor did ALA even acknowledge a common practice in the late 1960s among white southern education administrators of transferring Black school librarians to white schools so those administrators could claim their faculties were now "integrated," and by this racist practice continue to limit contact between Black educators and white students but still qualify for federal education funds. (See article referenced above, and my forthcoming American Public School Librarianship:  A History, September, 2021).   

These are just a few examples that clearly demonstrate that ALA's 140-year history on the issues listed in the August 18 statement is at best "checkered."  

For several years now I have been calling upon ALA to follow the example of other professional associations and establish a "Commission on Racism."  The findings of such a commission may be the only way in the future to guard against such historically incorrect statements like the one quoted above. I find it sadly ironic that in the statement opposing censorious initiatives ALA has whitewashed its own history.

I was very pleased to see the American Library Association's June 26, 2020, statement that "accepts and acknowledges its role in upholding unjust systems of racism and discrimination against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color," but as I've said in at least one article I've published since that resolution was passed, "It is impossible for members of the nation's library community to fathom the full burden of that responsibility if such large chunks of that past ...remain unknown to the present." (Library Quarterly 91, July, 2021:266)   

Now comes an August 18, 2021, statement by the ALA Executive Board sparked largely by reaction to the controversy over critical race theory that concludes with the sentence:  "For more than 140 years, ALA has been the trusted voice of libraries, advocating for the profession and the library's role in enhancing learning and ensuring access to information for all."  

That last statement is simply not true.  For example, three months after ALA passed the original Library Bill of Rights (1939), Black students in Alexandria, Virginia, conducted a sit-in at the segregated white public library.  ALA said nothing, and did nothing in response.  (See Brenda Mitchell-Powell's forthcoming book on the subject.). During the 1960s Civil Rights Movement ALA filed several amicus briefs in censorship cases, but filed none on behalf of cases involving the young Black kids attempting to desegregate southern public library systems. (See Wayne A. and Shirley A. Wiegand, The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South, 2018).   Nor did ALA even acknowledge a common practice in the late 1960s among white southern education administrators of transferring Black school librarians to white schools so those administrators could claim their faculties were now "integrated," and by this racist practice continue to limit contact between Black educators and white students but still qualify for federal education funds. (See article referenced above, and my forthcoming American Public School Librarianship:  A History, September, 2021).   

These are just a few examples that clearly demonstrate that ALA's 140-year history on the issues listed in the August 18 statement is at best "checkered."  

For several years now I have been calling upon ALA to follow the example of other professional associations and establish a "Commission on Racism."  The findings of such a commission may be the only way in the future to guard against such historically incorrect statements like the one quoted above. I find it sadly ironic that in the statement opposing censorious initiatives ALA has whitewashed its own history.