COPY
August 28, 1925.
Dear Mr. Belden:
In the Library Journal of July, 1925, we have noted that the Board of Education for Librarianship recently discussed plans for the establishment of a library school for colored librarians. Today we are in receipt of a press release from Hampton Institute announcing the opening of a school "for the training of colored librarians" on September 24 at Hampton Institute, this step being taken with the approval and cooperation of the American Library Association and the General Education Board.
We are writing to you as President of the American Library Association to make the very urgent request that the American Library Association reconsider its approval of the establishment of a segregated library training school for colored librarians. We feel sure that this proposed school will not only not be approved by thinking colored people, but it will also be vigorously opposed and resented.
Our reasons for making this request are as follows:
First: Hitherto those colored people who have taken the library training course have done so at the regularly established places, and so far as we have been able to learn, there has never been any trouble. On the contrary, we can cite numerous instances where fellow students of these colored librarians who might have held prejudice against Negroes were, from contact with intelligent colored people, given a wholly new outlook resulting in definite and desirable changes of opinion.
A second reason is that the segregation of colored library students places upon them the stigma of being either unable to compete with white students or else not fit for association with white librarians. Such a reflection will undoubtedly be resented by self-respecting colored people.
Our third reason for objecting to the establishment of the school is on the ground of the scholastic standing of Hampton Institute. That Institute is doing a very splendid and a very much needed piece of work. But Hampton Institute is an industrial and high school. The other library schools are, we understand, located at Simmons College, the University of Wisconsin, the New York Public Library School, the Library School at Pratt Institute, the Pittsburgh Library School, and the State Library School at Albany, New York. All of these library schools are either connected with institutions of college or university rank or are a part of the library systems of large cities as in New York and Pittsburgh. To our positive knowledge a number of Negroes have attended the New York Public [page 2] Library School and there has never been any friction or any disturbance connected with their presence there. We, therefore, do not feel that the best interests of colored librarians would be served through the connection of such a school with an institution which is not of college or university rank.
Fourth: We understand that the only library school at present located in the South is at Atlanta, Ga. We do not ask, nor do we expect a school located in Georgia to accept colored students. However, since students who might come from the South would have to travel as far as Hampton, Va., anyhow to attend the new school, we feel that they might better travel a bit further to one of the library schools located in a section of the country where white and colored students have attended classes together without friction or disturbance.
Fifth: Though the announcement of the opening of a school at Hampton Institute does not state that any colored person wishing to take a library training course will be sent to Hampton no matter where that person's home may be, nothing is said to indicate that this is not the case. Our observations have demonstrated that when a segregated institution of this sort is established, in the course of time all colored persons desiring library training would be forced to attend the segregated school at Hampton.
Sixth: We feel that a school located at Hampton cannot attain the highest rank, nor can it give to its students as complete training as would be the case at one of the library schools now established, due to the fact that being located in the South and due to the further fact that where segregation is practice eventually lower standards obtain, it will be difficult to get the best library authorities to serve as instructors at that school.
Seventh, and finally: There has been, we have learned, no segregation whatever of any other group. We feel sure that the American Library Association would not care to be party to a movement which places upon colored people the stigma that they of all people in America are alone unworthy to be accepted as American citizens. In view of the fact that librarians are and should be among the most literate groups in America, they of all groups should take a stand free from imputations of prejudice.
We are respectfully requesting that you whose reputation on such matters has always been of the highest will not only use your influence as President of the American Library Association towards the withdrawal of whatever approval has been given to this segregated institution, but that through you the American Library Association may go on record as being opposed to the establishment of this segregated school.
I am writing also to Mr. Frederick P. Keppel, President of the Carnegie Corporation, expressing the same views. Will you be good enough to let me know your opinion upon this matter and advise us of such steps as you may see fit to take.
Yours very truly,
Comments