The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown: Civil Rights, Censorship, and the American Library [Hardcover]

Louise S. Robbins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0806131632 | ISBN-13: 978-0806131634 | Publication Date: December 1999

In 1950 Ruth W. Brown, librarian at the Bartlesville Public Library, was 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 was active in 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 strange period of the Cold War known as the McCarthy era, foregrounding those who labored for racial justice, sometimes at great cost, before the civil rights movement.

The fundamental issues of the Brown case make it especially pertinent today, when differences--in race, gender, class, and national origin--are again feared, and as challenges to materials in library collections again escalate. 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This little book is a major contribution to our understanding of library history and the core values of librarianship, but it is much more than that. It uniquely illuminates the way American society has used patriotism, loyalty, and the threat of communism to maintain and mask the subtle, even unwitting, racist and sexist agendas and traditions so deeply entrenched in our communities and their institutions. In 1950, Miss Ruth Brown was dismissed from her job as librarian at the Bartlesville Public Library, OK, a position she had held for 30 years, ostensibly because she had circulated such subversive and communist materials as the Nation, New Republic, and Soviet Russia Today. But many believed the real reason for her firing was due to her efforts to promote racial equality. This reviewer had heard about Brown and Bartlesville for decades. Thanks to Robbins (director, SLIS, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of Censorship and the American Library: The American Library Association!s Response to Threats to Intellectual Freedom, 1939$1969), one can finally understand what happened there and much more about America and librarianship. At the same time, the author introduces Brown!s story to a new generation of librarians unfamiliar with the case but who are now facing the [same] search for scapegoats, contests over cultural values, and the move by conservative groups touting family values! (rather than Americanism) to screen library materials. This title ranks with Jesse Shera!s classic Foundations of the Public Library in its historical insight and sweep. It also sheds revealing light on the reasons why our strong professional commitment to intellectual freedom has so frequently been blinded to or silent about our vulnerability to racial and gender injustice and inequity in our midst. We begin to know from Robbins who and why we librarians are what we are. We see the complexity of our value system and the imperative to articulate it more effectively to our public. The bonus here is Robbins!s epilog telling how she found the sources and conducted the research. It is academic detective work at its most thrilling. You owe it to yourself and your profession to make sure your library has this book, that you read it, and that you share it with your colleagues. We really needed this one."John Berry, Library Journal
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Louise S. Robbins, Associate Professor and Director, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, is author of Censorship and the American Library: The American Library Association's Response to Threats to Intellectual Freedom, 1939-1969.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 237 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (December 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806131632
• ISBN-13: 978-0806131634
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,300,016 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "America's Ideal Family Center", June 22, 2000

By 

Charles M. Nobles (Tulsa, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown: Civil Rights, Censorship, and the American Library (Hardcover)

Having spent the majority of my life living in northeastern Oklahoma, I was well aware of Bartlesville, OK. I must have made hundreds of trips to what the Chamber of Commerce touted as "America's Ideal Family Center." It had the reputation of being a conservative, white, upper-class community that was progressive as that term was defined by the dominant employer, Phillips Petroleum. In short, it was a typical, though certainly more wealthy than most, small Oklahoma town. Or so I thought. I have since learned, thanks to Louise Robbin's fine book, that Bartlesville had a dark side, darker than most it turns out, that does not appear in the Chamber of Commerce press releases. It is not a pretty story. Ruth Winifred Brown was born on July 26, 1891, in Hiawatha, KS. She graduated in 1915 with a degree from the Univ. Of Oklahoma. In November, 1919, she became the librarian for the Bartlesville Public Library. She served as librarian for 30 years without a mark on her record. It was, by all accounts, a record of outstanding achievement and exemplary service. On July 25th, 1950, Brown was summarily dismissed by the city commissioners. The reason given was she had caused subversive materials, in the form of magazines such as The Nation and The New Republic, to be circulated to the general populace. To be sure this was the McCarthy era, a time when groups such as the American Legion and the Chamber of Commerce, to name but a few, were working diligently to rid our communities of suspected or perceived communist influence. Thus, if a librarian or two had to be sacrificed in this war to protect our cherished freedoms, it really was not too big a price to pay. After all, many American's lost their jobs, reputations, and families under the tutelage of Sen. McCarthy and his ilk. That's the price of freedom. If this were the real story of Miss Ruth Brown it probably would not warrant the publication of a book. Unfortunately, there is more, much more. Thanks to the scholarship of Ms. Robbins we now know that Brown was fired from her job, not for so-called subversive activities, but because she had been active in promoting racial equality. She had the gall to not only help form a group affiliated with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) but, even more shocking, to visit a major drug store in Bartlesville in February, 1950, with two black ladies and request to be served. This she did on her own time, without any fanfare or publicity, and some four years before Brown v. Board of Education and other events which began to at least offer a glimmer of hope to those supporting racial equality. Robbins has provided the reader with the history and background of political, social, economic, and cultural events that led to the merger of McCarthyism and racial unrest, which resulted in a sad, black chapter in the history of Bartlesville, not to mention the Nation. It is sad, not only because the community tolerated such behavior by its elected and appointed officials, but also because many of Miss Brown's colleagues knew the real reason for her termination and failed to disclose it to the community. It is also the story of courage and pride exhibited mostly by women during a time when it was not popular to be supportative of African Americans or any other group not on the power structures accepted list. This is a must read book if you are interested in forces ever present in our communities that can, and do, lead to censorship, intolerance, and the suppression of individual rights. The story is about a local event some 50 years ago; the message is about issues that are relevant today. Bartlesville, "America's Ideal Family Center." You be the judge.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life in the Turbulent McCarthy/Blossoming Civil Rights Era, March 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown: Civil Rights, Censorship, and the American Library (Hardcover)

This book provides a fascinating micro snapshot of what was occuring on a macro level across the United States during a turbulant time period in American history---the McCarthy era and the blossiming of the civil rights movement in the South. Bartlesville, OK, presents the perfect, middle-American city for a case study on American upset caused by the post-WW II end of American isolationism (with its concommitant fears of Russian world domination) and recognition that American Blacks were deserving of the same rights they died for the Europeans to have. The book recounts the true story of librarian Ruth Brown, who in fighting against censorship and for civil rights, became the victim of an economic, class, and social structure not ready for change and eager and willing to use ignorance and fear as weapons. I appreciated the author's ability to pull together an interesting, well-organized, and comprehensive story from a vast array of sources with very different points of view. For anyone interested in history made personal, and in seeing how every-day people become heroes and villians by standing up for their beliefs, this book is a true gem.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Impressive Work About Censorship and Racial Equality, September 27, 2005

By 

Jeffrey T. Munson (Dixon, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown: Civil Rights, Censorship, and the American Library (Paperback)

This book was required reading for a master's degree course in which I am enrolled, and from the moment I started reading, I was entralled with the story of Miss Ruth Brown and the hardships she was forced to endure due to the personal agendas of such groups as the Chamber of Commerce and the American Legion.

Miss Brown was hired as the librarian for the Bartlesville, Oklahoma public library. Located deep in the oil fields of Oklahoma, Bartlesville was home to Phillips Petroleum Company. Phillips had great influence over many of the areas of Bartlesville, including the library.

One of Miss Brown's favorite activities was planning story time and fun things for children. She included black as well as white children at her gatherings. This infuriated many of the townspeople, for Bartlesville, as with other areas of the country in the late 1940s and early 1950s, was engulfed in racism and segregation. Also, Miss Brown was accused of having "submissive materials", including the magazines "The Nation" and "The New Republic" on the shelves. Many people felt these were Communist-type propaganda magazines that should not be available to the general public.

Miss Brown remained defiant. She continued to hold her de-segregated story hours and shelve her "submissive" magazine, all to the chagrin of the "powers-that-be". She even entered a downtown drug store with two African-American women and asked to be served. She was refused.

Finally, under pressure from the big wigs at Phillips, as well as other people in the community, the city commission removed Miss Brown as librarian for having submissive materials available to the general public, when in reality she was fired for promoting racial equality.

Miss Brown eventually filed suit against the Bartlesville city commission, but she lost on appeal. She then took a job in Mississippi at Piney Woods Country Life School, a school for African-Americans.

Miss Brown died on September 10, 1975 at the age of eighty-four, but her legacy lives on. She promoted racial harmony and equality during a time of the Ku-Klux Klan and lynchings. She promoted free speech and expression during a time of censorship. And she promoted the library as a place of learning which should be accessable to everyone.

This is a fabulous book. From the moment I started reading, I could not put it down. The story told by author Louise Robbins is excellent, and her prose is easy to read and understand. I give this book my absolute highest recommendation. Read it and see how one woman's courageous struggle changed the landscape of censorship, race relations, and libraries forever.