Ruth Brown

Ruth Winifred Brown (July 26, 1891September 10, 1975) was an American librarian, best known for her dismissal from service for civil rights activities in the late 1940s. On July 25, 1950, she was dismissed after 30 years of service as the Bartlesville, Oklahoma public librarian. She was relieved of her duties in 1950 on the baseless accusation that she was a communist when, in fact, she was fired because of her desegregation activities. She was accused of providing "subversive" materials to the public and indoctrinating children against the principles of America. However, it was widely believed at the time that her dismissal was in response to her activities promoting the equality of African-Americans during a time when the leading citizens of the city were not ready to face equality for all. Life Brown was born in Hiawatha, Kansas on July 26, 1891 to Silas and Jennie Brown, two New England transplants. She lived with her parents and brother Merrit in Kansas until the family moved to California where Brown went to high school. She attended high school in California and then Northwestern State Normal School in Alva, Oklahoma. Graduating in 1910, Brown then attended the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, graduating in 1915. Brown also attended the School of Library Service of Columbia University during summers, where she worked with Helen E. Haines and Ernestine Rose, both of which were fierce supporters of intellectual freedom.} Brown taught in Eufaula and Nowata but chose not to continue in the profession. Instead she wanted to move back home to be closer to her parents, especially her mother who was confined to a wheelchair. Brown moved to the small town of Bartlesville in 1919, where her parents now lived. In November 1919, Brown accepted the job a librarian at the local Carnegie library in Bartlesville. She felt a calling to her work and said she would not marry because the library was "like a marriage to her". She was passionate about the children who visited the library, knew them all by name, and even persuaded some to become librarians. Active in the Oklahoma Library Association (OLA), Brown was elected secretary in 1920, treasurer in 1926, and president in 1931. During her presidential year, she gave a speech which advised librarians to "reduce to a minimum worry about lost books" and to encourage the many who did not "make use of their right to library service".