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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
The Early Kinship: Kentucky Negro Public Education, Libraries, And Librarians, Reinette F. Jones
The Early Kinship: Kentucky Negro Public Education, Libraries, And Librarians, Reinette F. Jones
Library Faculty and Staff Publications
In the final decades of the nineteenth century libraries were a very miniscule part of the initial drive toward education for Kentucky's former slaves. Thirty-one years after public education became available, Thomas Fountain Blue began training Negro librarians at the Louisville Free Public Library Western Colored Branch. Another 30 years would pass before Negro librarians would be recognized by the Kentucky Negro Education Association in 1935. Unfortunately, by 1935 Blue's training program had ended and there were no institutions in Kentucky offering library training to Negroes.
African American Librarians In Kentucky, Reinette F. Jones
African American Librarians In Kentucky, Reinette F. Jones
Library Faculty and Staff Publications
Kentucky was the first North American state to establish a free public library exclusively for African Americans. The library, located in Louisville, Kentucky, was managed by Thomas Fountain Blue, the first African American to manage a public library. The establishing of the Colored Library and Thomas Fountain Blue's Apprentice Training Program was the beginning of librarianship and libraries for African Americans in Kentucky.