Title: The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown
Description: In 1950 Ruth W. Brown, librarian at the Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Public Library, was summarily dismissed from her job after thirty years of exemplary service, ostensibly because she had circulated subversive materials. In truth, however, Brown was fired because she had become active in promoting racial equality and had helped form a group affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality. This episode in a small Oklahoma town almost a half-century ago is more than a disturbing local event. It exemplifies the McCarthy era, foregrounding those who labored for racial justice, sometimes at great cost, before the civil rights movement. In addition, it reveals a masking of concerns that led even Brown's allies to obscure the cause of racial integration for which she fought. Relevant today, Ruth Brown's story helps us understand the matrix of personal, community, state, and national forces that can lead to censorship, intolerance, and the suppression of individual rights. (Inspiration for the 1956 Bette Davis film Storm Center.)
Subjects: 20th century, African Americans and libraries, Bartlesville Public Library (Bartlesville, Okla.), Censorship, Civil rights workers, Employment, History, Libraries and communism, Public librarians, Public libraries, Bibliothèque publique, Negers, Bibliotecas públicas (século 20), Maccarthysme, Bibliothèques et Noirs américains, Bibliotecários, Direito civil, Gelijke rechten, Bibliothèques et communisme, Bibliothécaires, Travail, Recrutement, Bibliothécaires de bibliothèques publiques, Censura, Histoire, Bibliothèques publiques, Défenseurs des droits de l'homme, Censure, Openbare bibliotheken, Case studies, Bibliothèques, United states, history, 20th century, United states, race relations, Civil rights movements, united states, Public libraries, history
Places: Bartlesville, Oklahoma
People: Ruth Winifred Brown
Time periods: 20th century