Three-time FSU School of Information alumna, Aisha M. Johnson-Jones, PhD, has committed her life to researching African American and southern public library history. Her book, The African American Struggle for Library Equality: The Untold Story of the Julis Rosenwald Fund Library Program, is the culmination of years of hard work and research, revealing “a new understanding of library practices of the early 20th century.”
Dr. Johnson-Jones earned her doctorate in Information Studies in 2015 with Dr. Paul Marty as her faculty advisor. “It’s so exciting to see the amazing research Aisha did for her dissertation turn into a ground-breaking book that offers a unique take on the history of African American libraries,” he said. “Her background and expertise in archives, library science, and history makes her uniquely suited to tell this fascinating and important story of American history.”
Currently, Dr. Johnson-Jones is the Supervisory Archivist at Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also an archival studies lecturer at Clayton State University.
The book’s summary, according to the publisher’s website:
The African American Struggle for Library Equality: The Untold Story of the Julius Rosenwald Fund Library Program unveils the almost forgotten philanthropic efforts of Julius Rosenwald, former president of Sears, Roebuck, Co. and an elite business man. Rosenwald simply desired to improve, “the well-being of mankind” through access to education.
Many people are familiar with Mr. Rosenwald as the founder of the Julius Rosenwald Fund that established more than 5,300 rural schools in 15 Southern states during the period 1917-1938. However, there is another major piece of the puzzle, the Julius Rosenwald Fund Library Program. That program established more than 10,000 school, college, and public libraries, funded library science programs that trained African American librarians, and made evident the need for libraries to be supported by local governments.
The African American Struggle for Library Equality is the first comprehensive history of the Julius Rosenwald Fund Library Program to be published. The book reveals a new understanding of library practices of the early 20th century. Through original research and use of existing literature, Aisha Johnson Jones exposes historic library practices that discriminated against blacks, and the necessary remedies the Julius Rosenwald Fund Library Program implemented to cure this injustice, which ultimately influenced other philanthropists like Andrew Carnegie and Bill Gates (the Gates Foundation has a library program) as well as organizations like the American Library Association.
Click here for more information about Dr. Johnson-Jones’s book.