Panel discussion with Wayne A. Wiegand, Jay Barth, Guy Lancaster and Rhonda Stewart
Wayne A. Wiegand is the author of In Silence or Indifference: Racism and Jim Crow Segregated Public School Libraries, which analyzes and critiques the world of professional librarianship between 1954 and 1974 to identify racism in the practice and customs of public school libraries in the years leading up to the Brown v. Board of Education decision that declared segregated schools unconstitutional.
Librarians around the country are currently on a battleground, defending their right to purchase and circulate books dealing with issues of race and systemic racism. Despite this work, the library community has often overlooked—even ignored—its own history of white supremacy and deliberate inaction over the years on the part of white librarians and library leadership. Wiegand takes a crucial step to amend this historical record, and his book brings to light a distressing history that continues to impact the library community, its students, and its patrons.
Wayne A. Wiegand is F. William Summers Professor Emeritus of Library and Information Studies at Florida State University, and author of Irrepressible Reformer: A Biography of Melvil Dewey (1998), Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1876–1956 (2011), and Part of Our Lives: A People’s History of the American Public Library (2015). And with his wife Shirley A. Wiegand, he is coauthor of The Desegregation of Public Libraries in the Jim Crow South: Civil Rights and Local Activism (2018).
Legacies & Lunch is a hybrid program offering participants the opportunity to attend either in person or virtually via Zoom. To participate in person, join us at - NEW LOCATION - UA Little Rock Downtown (333 President Clinton Ave). Parking is available in the surface lot or the CALS Parking Deck which you can access from Rock Street. Parking will be validated. Bring your lunch; we will provide drinks and cookies. To participate virtually, register for the webinar using the button above. This program will be live-streamed to YouTube and the recording will be available immediately following the event.
Legacies & Lunch is a free monthly program of CALS Butler Center for Arkansas Studies about Arkansas-related topics.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | History & Genealogy |
TAGS: | RobertsLibrary | LegaciesAndLunch |
The Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art is the special collections branch of the Central Arkansas Library System. It houses the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and the Encyclopedia of Arkansas.
The mission of the Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art is to engage the people of Central Arkansas in meaningful conversations about our rich history and artistic heritage and its impact on our present.