Libraries and Librarianship

Miriam Matthews posing in graduation cap and gown
In 1927, Miriam Matthews became the first African American credentialed librarian in California, and the first hired by the Los Angeles Public Library. She was also a tireless historian, preservationist, and art collector of California's Black history. Miriam Matthews posing in graduation cap and gown, circa 1927, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph collection, MS 189, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.
Elinor Watkins seated at desk
Eleanor Carroll Watkins and Syria Elaine Baptiste were among the earliest African American librarians hired by the Oakland Free Library in the 1930s and 40s. By 1939, Watkins had helped introduce "Negro History Week" observations at the Dimond and Piedmont branches. Baptiste served for 31 years as a librarian and librarian supervisor with the City of Oakland. The first Black senior librarian of the Oakland Public Library, Annye Penn Roberson, was hired in 1946. Elinor Watkins seated at desk, undated, Royal E. Towns Papers, MS 26, African American Museum and Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.
Rosemary Prince, Supervising Librarian of the Elmhurst Branch Library, shows Mayor William L. books on display at the Bay Area Urban League Join In event held at Madison Junior High School
Rosemary Prince, Supervising Librarian of the Elmhurst Branch Library, shows Mayor William L. books on display at the Bay Area Urban League "Join In" event held at Madison Junior High School, circa 1960s, Oakland Post Photograph collection, MS 169, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Prepare for a visit to AAMLO with these special topic resource guides.

This resource guide is intended to help users locate holdings at AAMLO related to the field of library and information science and librarianship as a profession.

It highlights holdings in the following areas:

● Selected Library Material at the Oakland Public Library
● Selected Archival Collections at AAMLO

Other collections may contain relevant materials. Please contact AAMLO (aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org) with any questions or to schedule an appointment to view materials in person.

Selected Library Materials

Nego Literature Collection of the Oakland Free Library 1937
Nego Literature Collection of the Oakland Free Library, 1937, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Vertical File Collection, MS 179, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

The Black Librarian in America / The Black Librarian in America Revisited by E.J. Josey

Handbook of Black Librarianship

Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History

Black Academic Libraries and Research Collections: An Historical Survey by Jessie Carney Smith

Black History: a Guide to Civilian Records in the National Archives

Library Guide for Black Americans [Oakland Public Library]

From the Archives [African American Museum & Library at Oakland]

Library Services and Construction Act, Title I : Application, 1994, Fiscal Year, 1994-95, for the African American Museum and Library at Oakland

African American Librarians in the Far West: Pioneers and Trailblazers edited by Binnie Tate Wilkin

Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, Black Bibliophile & Collector by Elinor Des Verney Sinnette

E.J. Josey: Transformational Leader of the Modern Library Profession by Renate Chancellor

Untold Stories: Civil Rights, Libraries, and Black Librarianship edited by John Mark Tucker

Not Free, Not for All: Public Libraries in the Age of Jim Crow by Cheryl Knott

The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism by Wayne A. Wiegand

Freedom Libraries: the Untold Story of Libraries for African Americans in the South by Mike Selby

The 21st-century Black Librarian in America: Issues and Challenges 

Rosa Parks examines family genealogical records at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, with assistant Elaine Steele and library genealogist Jay Roberts
Rosa Parks examines family genealogical records at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, with assistant Elaine Steele and library genealogist Jay Roberts, 1992, Oakland Post Photograph collection, MS 169, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Selected Archival Collections

Eugene and Ruth Lasartemay standing next to exhibit case
Eugene and Ruth Lasartemay standing next to exhibit case of the East Bay Negro Historical Society, 1983, East Bay Negro Historical Society records, MS 32, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

East Bay Negro Historical Society Records. The East Bay Negro Historical Society (EBNHS) was organized on July 2, 1965 in the home of Marcella Ford. In attendance at the first meeting were the seven founding members of the society: Marcella Ford, Jesse Ford, Eugene Lasartemay, Ruth Lasartemay, E. Harold Mason, Morrie Turner, and Madison Harvey Jr. The society’s mission was to “collect, preserve, record, and disseminate information related to the history, culture and experience, of persons of Black American and African descent, especially those in the East Bay, the State of California and throughout the West.” The EBNHS consisted of members, officers, and an executive board and included library, museum, publications and publicity, program, membership, finance, and nomination committees which met on the third Saturday of every month. Initially, the society operated as a unit of the Oakland Unified School District Volunteer Program, with members giving lectures on black history to students that would visit the library and museum.

In 1970, the EBNHS moved to a storefront located at 3651 Grove Street in Oakland, California and remained there for six years before moving to 4519 Grove St., where it established a museum and library. In 1982, the society was invited into the Golden Gate Branch of the Oakland Public Library, making it the first Oakland library branch with a collection dedicated to African American history and culture. Following the appointment of Dr. Lawrence Crouchett as its executive director in 1988, the society changed its name to the Northern California Center for Afro-American History & Life (NCCAAHL). In 1994, the City of Oakland and the NCCAAHL merged to create the African American Museum & Library at Oakland (AAMLO). The East Bay Negro Historical Society Records include meeting minutes, correspondence, reports, program flyers and brochures, financial ledgers, and scrapbooks documenting the activities of the society between 1965-2001.

Library patron inside Golden Gate
Library patron viewing an exhibit by the Northern California Center for Afro-American History & Life inside the Golden Gate Branch Library, circa 1980s, East Bay Negro Historical Society records, MS 32, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.
Looking at documents in the Northern California Center for African-American History & Life, circa 1990s, MS32
Archival work of the Northern California Center for Afro-American History & Life, circa 1990s, East Bay Negro Historical Society records, MS 32, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection. Born in 1905 in Pensacola, Florida to Reuben Hearde and Fannie (Elijah) Matthews, Miriam Matthews (1905-2003) was the Los Angeles Public Library's first professional African American librarian and an important preservationist and collector of African American art and history. Matthews earned degrees in librarianship from the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Chicago and served as a branch and regional library manager for the Los Angeles Public Library for 33 years between 1927-1960. She was active in professional and civic organizations and received numerous awards for her contributions to African American history. The Miriam Matthews Photographic Collection consists of 121 photographic prints collected by Miriam Matthews largely related to African American history in California. Roughly half of the collection is photographs of notable African American politicians taken by photographer Harry A. Adams in Southern California between 1955-1964

Richard Earl Brown, Berkeley Public Library Director
Before his appointment as Director of the Berkeley Public Library, Richard Earl Brown was head of the reference division with the Oakland Public Library and had served as manager of the North Oakland branch. Richard Earl Brown, 1972, Oakland Post Photograph collection, MS 169, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Oakland Post Photograph Collection. Photographs appearing in the Oakland Post newspaper between 1963-2005 include portraits of various Bay Area librarians and library directors, as well as library users in a variety of settings. 

African American Museum & Library at Oakland Vertical File Collection. Selected items include 

  • Oral history interview with Miriam Matthews conducted by Billy Field (undated)
  • Material documenting the history of the East Bay Negro Historical Society
  • Oakland Public Library Association, Friends of the Oakland Public Library, and Oakland Public Library staff newsletters
  • Volumes of Bay Area Library and Information System News
  • Fact sheets on the renaming of the Tarea Hall Pittman South Branch of the Berkeley Public Library
  • Ephemera related to the California Librarians Black Caucus 
  • California Black Librarians directory (1976)
  • Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture program flyers and activity reports
  • Various bibliographies and reading lists on African American Literature and Black Studies compiled by library staff
  • Library program flyers
  • A history of the Negro Literature Collection at the Oakland Public Library (1941)
  • Peoples Librarians Task Force flyer (1975)

Royal E. Towns Papers. Royal E. Towns (1899-1990) worked as an amateur historian after his retirement from the Oakland Fire Department. His interest in the history of African Americans in California spurred him to give numerous lectures on African American history to students, and he also served on the Allensworth Advisory Committee to establish Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, and he served as treasurer of the Oakland Negro Historical Society. The Towns Papers include photographs of Eleanor Carroll Watkins, one of the earliest African American professional librarians in Oakland. Watkins was born in Oakland in 1912 and attended the University of California, Berkeley, obtaining a degree in Library Science in 1934. While at Berkeley, Watkins was a charter member of the Kappa Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, serving as a Regional Director from 1932-1933. Watkins was hired by the Oakland Free Library in 1935 as a Library Clerical Assistant, quickly becoming a Junior Librarian the following year. As reported in a 1939 Activities Among Negroes column, Watkins was "the only woman of her race holding the position as a staff member of the institution in Alameda County" at the time. 

Exterior of Allensworth's Mary Dickenson Memorial Library
Exterior of the Tulare County Library [Mary Dickenson Memorial Library] in Allensworth, undated, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph collection, MS 189, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.
Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park Advisory Committee Audio Recordings Collection. Recordings of the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park Advisory Committee include an oral history interview with Allensworth resident Armilda Archer Smith discussing the town's Mary Dickinson Memorial Library run by Ethel Hall Norton. Born May 30, 1895, Norton was among the few African American librarians in the early 20th century with an opportunity to provide public library service to an African American clientele. Listen online at the Internet Archive.

Gladys Jordan Papers. Gladys Meriwether Jordan was a pioneer educator and first African American woman to teach at the Emeryville High School. Students of her Emeryville High School Negro History class would go on to join the Black Panther Party. The Gladys Jordan papers include teaching notes, lesson plans, bibliographies and handouts, and material related to her Social and Negro History course taught at Contra Costa College. Selected bibliographies include "Books in the McClymonds Library by and about negroes" and "The American Negro in the Berkeley Public Library."

Rhonda White-Warner Papers. The papers of publisher and media consultant Rhonda White-Warner (1951-2014) include subject files related to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture between the years 1986-1990.

Elinor Watkins working on Oakland Public Library exhibit
Eleanor Watkins working on library exhibit, undated, Royal E. Towns papers, MS 26, African American Museum and Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.
June Long and George Kreshlca of Berkeley Unified School District looking at additions to school library
June Long and George Kreshlca of Berkeley Unified School District looking at additions to school library, 1970, Oakland Post Photograph collection, MS 169, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.
Portrait of children reading
Portrait of children reading, 1949, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph collection, MS 189, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Additional Information

Search the library using the catalog.

Consult AAMLO's finding aids in the Online Archive of California.

We are working to create new resource guides. Have an idea for a new guide? Contact us at aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org.