Hampton, Fisk, and Atlanta: The Foundations, the American Library Association, and Library Education for Blacks, 1925-1941

Abstract

Training Black librarians to work in the segregated South was a major concern of the American Library Association (ALA), of the philanthropic foundations involved in library development in the South, and of southern librarians in the 1920s and 1930s. The choice of the Hampton Institute and, later, Atlanta University as designated centers for training Black librarians was a controversial one. The issues of appropriate institutional affiliations for the effort, of funding, and even of the need for such a facility were hotly debated. This paper investigates the issues surrounding the establishment of a formal school for Black librarians and the circum-stances that eventually placed the school at Atlanta University