David Ruggles
1810 –- The first known African-American book collector. He was known for his knowledge of law.
1833 -- America's first African-American bookseller when he opened a bookstore near Broadway
1828 -- The wealthy and respected abolitionist and book collector, William Whipper organized the Reading Room, in Philadelphia, for the mental improvement of people of color
1871 -- Daniel Alexander Payne Murray joined the Library of Congress staff as personal assistant to Ainsworth Rand Spofford, Librarian of Congress.
1875 -- Richard T. Greener functioned as university librarian at the University of South Carolina, reorganized the library, and prepared a catalog. Greener was also the first black person to receive a degree from Harvard University.
1880 -- Daniel A. P. Murray was appointed assistant librarian at the Library of Congress.
1894 -- Edward Christopher Williams was appointed librarian of Western Reserve University’s Adelbert College.
George Washington Forbes
1896 -- assistant librarian of the West end Branch of the Boston Public Library, where he served diverse patrons for over thirty years. The United States Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson established the "separate but equal" doctrine was responsible for segregated library facilities for African Americans. The law remained in effect until the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
1900 -- S. W. Starks was appointed West Virginia State Librarian and held the position until 1906.
1905 -- Thomas Fountain Blue became the first African American to head a public library branch, the Louisville Free Public Library.
1920 -- Catherine Allen Latimer became the first black professional librarian at the New York Public Library; she was assigned to 135th Street Branch, which is now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
1921 -- J. Arthur Jackson was selected State Librarian of West Virginia.
1923 -- Virginia Procter Powell Florence, the first professionally educated female black librarian, graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh.
1927 -- Miriam Matthews was appointed as the first African American professional Librarian in the Los Angeles system.
1932 -- The New York Public Library selected Arthur A. Schomburg as the curator of the black research collection, which was later to be named for him.
1940 -- Eliza Atkins Gleason was the first Afro-American to be awarded the first Ph.D. in librarianship from the University of Chicago. Her dissertation was entitled "The Southern Negro and the Public Library."
1943 -- Arna W. Bontemps was the first African American university librarian of Fisk University.
1943 -- Virginia Lacy Jones was the second Afro-American to be awarded a Ph. D in librarianship, also from University of Chicago. Her dissertation was The Problems of Negro High School Libraries in Selected Southern Cities.
1944-1950 -- Poet, historian, and supervisor of the Dillard Historical project, Marcus Bruce Christian was assistant librarian at Dillard University in New Orleans.
1952 -- Clarence R. Graham, of Louisville Free Public, became the first Southern public librarian to open the main library to African Americans.
1953 -- Assistant Coordinator of Children’s Services and Storytelling Specialist, Augusta Baker, was the first African American to hold an administrative position in the New York Public Library.
1957 -- Alma Jacobs was the first African American president of the Pacific Northwest Library Association.