May 14 - BlackFacts.com Black History Minute

BlackFacts.com: Learn/Teach/Create Black History

BlackFacts.com presents the black fact of the day for May 14.

Clara Stanton Jones was born.

She was the first African-American president of the American Library Association and the first African American and the first woman to serve as director of a major library system in America, as director of the Detroit Public Library.

Jones obtained a well-rounded education even though the St. Louis public school system was completely segregated. She grew up in an entirely African-American world, with black role models and mentors.

She began working in libraries the same year she completed her degree in Library Science.

At the beginning of 1938, she worked in libraries at Dillard University in New Orleans and Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Jones spent the remainder of her library career at the Detroit Public Library, retiring in 1978 as the director.

With a focus on community, she worked to desegregate libraries, library services, and overall library culture by encouraging the American Library Association to pass the “Resolution on Racism and Sexism Awareness.”

In 1978, she was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. She was a member of the Public Library Association, American Civil Liberties Union, National Council of Negro Women, and more.

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