Seven Library Women Whose Humane Presence Enlightened Society in the Harlem Renaissance Iconoclastic Ethos

The purpose of this study is to document the lives and works of pioneer African American library women, and to reduce the paucity of history on Black women. Sadie Peterson Delaney, Nella Larsen, Virginia Proctor Powell Florence, Catherine Allen Latimer, Regina Anderson Andrews, Augusta Braxton Baker, and Jean Blackwell Hutson, not only worked at the 135th Street Branch of The New York Public Library (now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture) but either participated in, or perpetuated the iconoclastic ethos of the era known as the Harlem Renaissance. The subjects laid a foundation that opened opportunities to other Black women by refuting the stereotypical images assigned to them by the dominate society, as well as some Black men. A historical biographical anthology, the study uses interviews with Baker and Hutson, the only living subjects, and other primary sources, placing the subjects and their contributions in perspective to the history of librarianship and the Schomburg Center. The study suggests that the subjects were not only a major force in library history, but that they inspire a better understanding of the human condition in general, and African American women specifically, in the struggle to overcome the demoralizing and intolerable obstacle of racism.