Rollins, Charlemae Hill 1897–1979

views updated May 17 2018

Charlemae Hill Rollins 1897–1979

Librarian

During her career as a children’s librarian, which spanned more than three decades, Charlemae Hill Rollins made important contributions to ethnically responsible literature for children. In particular, she stressed that African Americans should take pride in their heritage. To this end she campaigned tirelessly to end the stereotypical portrayal of African Americans in juvenile literature. For decades African American children had been portrayed in children’s books as barefooted and poor, or as red-lipped clowns, and they did not interact with other characters as equals. Rollins made it her life’s work to counter these negative stereotypes in literature and to promote the publication of books dealing accurately with the African American experience.

Charlemae Hill was born on June 20, 1897, in Yazoo City, Mississippi. After graduating from Western University, she taught English for a time in Oklahoma and married Joseph Walter Rollins in 1918. In 1927, she accepted a position at the Chicago Public Library, and in 1932 she became the children’s librarian at the newly opened George C. Hall Branch of the Chicago Public Library, a post she held for thirty-six years. During her years as a librarian, Rollins paved inroads for African Americans in her profession. At one time the American Library Association itself held segregated meetings. In 1957, Rollins broke the color barrier when she was the first African American to be elected president of the Children’s Services Division of the American Library Association.

Rollins’s annotated bibliography of children’s books about African Americans, We Build Together: A Reader’s Guide to Negro Life and Literature for Elementary and High School Use, brought her national attention when it was first published in 1941 by the National Council of Teachers of English. “Children as they are growing up need special interpretations of the lives of other peoples, [and] must be helped to an understanding and tolerance,” Rollins is quoted on the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries web site. “They cannot develop these qualities through contacts with others, if those closest to them are prejudiced and unsympathetic with other races and groups. Tolerance and understanding can be gained through reading the right books.” By 1967 Rollins had revised and republished this important bibliography three times.

Rollins compiled Christmas Gif’: An Anthology of Christmas Poems, Songs, and Stories, Written By and About Negroes. This landmark work, which included

At a Glance…

Born June 20, 1897, in Yazoo City, MS; died February 3, 1979, in Chicago IL; daughter of Allen G. and Birdie (Tucker) Hill; married Joseph Walter Rollins, April 8, 1918; children: Joseph Walter, Jr. Education: Western University, 1915; summer study, Columbia University, 1932; University of Chicago, 1934-36.

Career: Chicago, IL, Public Library, 1927-79; children’s librarian at George C. Hall Branch, 1932-79; Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL, instructor in children’s literature, 1949-79; summer instructor at Fisk University, 1950; Morgan College, 1953-54,

Awards: American Brotherhood Award, National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1952; Library Letter Award, American Library Association, 1953; Grolier Society Award, 1955; woman of the year, Zeta Phi Beta, 1956; Good American Award of the Chicago Committee of One-hundred, 1962; Negro Centennial Awards, 1963; Children’s Reading Round Table Award, 1963; Constance Lindsay Skinner Award, Women’s National Book Association, 1970; Coretta Scott King Award, 1971.

selections by Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, and Gwendolyn Brooks, appeared in 1963. In her forward to the anthology, Rollins wrote, “The name of this anthology represents much to me—the pleasure of giving and recollections of a happy tradition that had its origin in the days of slavery. The custom of ‘Christmas Gif’ has been a part of the holiday celebration in my family for as long as I can remember.” Rollins continued, “As a child I spent much time with my grandmother, who had been a slave. From her I learned that ‘Christmas Gif’ was a surprise game played by the slaves on Christmas Day. Two people, meeting for the first time that day would compete to be the first to call out, ‘Christmas Gif!’ The loser happily paid a forfeit of a simple present—maybe a tea cake or a handful of nuts. Truly there was more pleasure in being ‘caught,’ and having to give the present—the giving, though comically protested was heartwarming to a people who had so little they could with dignity share with others.” This practice later spread to the homes of plantation owners and became holiday tradition for many.

Thirty years after its initial publication, the anthology was re-issued with linoleum-block illustrations by Ashley Bryan and sporting the updated subtitle “By and About African-Americans.” Also included in the new edition was a note by Rollins’s son, Joseph, Jr., who explained the retention of the original language, “While some...may seem outdated, to make any changes would certainly alter the artistic intent...[The] language does not obscure the messages of peace, unity, and goodwill that still ring true.” Upon its republication, Lois F. Anderson of Horn Book judged it a “worthy addition to the holiday bookshelf,” and a Kirkus Reviews commentator called it a “book that belongs in every library.”

Rollins met poet Langston Hughes in the 1930s at a Works Project Administration (WPA) sponsored writer’s project hosted by her library and the two became fast friends. To combat negative stereotypes, during the 1960s, Rollins wrote several collective biographies of prominent African Americans, including They Showed the Way: Forty American Negro Leaders (1964), Famous American Negro Poets (1965), and Famous Negro Entertainers of Stage, Screen, and TV (1967). Her friendship with Hughes led her to write the poet’s biography, Black Troubadour: Langston Hughes, which won the 1971 Coretta Scott King Award, an honor that acknowledges high quality writing by African American authors. Rollins also lectured on children’s literature at Roosevelt University in Chicago and taught for several summers at Fisk University and Morgan State College. She died on February 3, 1979.

During her lifetime, Rollins earned numerous awards for her accomplishments—which included various humanitarian, as well as literary, activities—and her memory has been honored in many ways. For example, the Charlemae Hill Rollins Scholarship pays the tuition of an African American student working toward a master’s degree in library science. The Carter G. Woodson Regional Library in Chicago contains a room that was dedicated to Rollins in 1977. Christopher Paul Curtis, in his 1999 Newbery Award winning children’s novel, Bud, Not Buddy, gave tribute to Rollins by when he portrayed her by name as the sympathetic children’s librarian whom main character Bud encounters in the Chicago Library. Rollins left her research to posterity in her publications in books and journals but also in her selected papers. Her explorations of segregation, Head Start, African American bibliography, and other topics are housed at the African American Resources Program, School of Library and Information Sciences at North Carolina Central University, in Durham, North Carolina. Even more, Rollins left a legacy of striving to portray African Americans with dignity in children’s literature, a goal that is continually being taken up by new generations of African American writers, educators, and librarians.

Sources

Books

Hine, Darlene Clark, Black Women in America, Carlson Publishing, 1993.

Periodicals

African American Review, spring, 1998.

Booklist, July, 1993.

Horn Book, May-June, 1994.

Jet, November 4, 1991; December 23, 1996.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1993.

School Library Journal, October, 1993.

Other

Additional information was obtained on-line at University of Southern Mississippi Libraries, “Black Experience in Children’s Literature”, www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/blackexperience/homepage.html, November 14, 2000 and Mississippi State University, “Christmas Gif”, www.msstate.edu/listarchives/afrigeneas/199812/msg00217.html, November 14, 2000.

—Jeanne M. Lesinski

Contemporary Black Biography Lesinski, Jeanne

Charlemae Hill Rollins

views updated May 17 2018

Charlemae Hill Rollins

Charlemae Hill Rollins (1897-1979) was a Chicago librarian and author who was dedicated to improving the image of African Americans in children's literature. She served as an advisor to authors, teachers, and publishers, encouraging them to disregard negative stereotypes and honestly portray black culture and history. Rollins taught two generations of children to love books and appreciate their ethnic heritage.

Charlemae Hill Rollins was born October 21, 1897, in the small farming community of Yazoo City, Mississippi. She was the oldest child of Allen G. Hill, a farmer, and Birdie Tucker Hill, a teacher. The family was poor, but Rollins remembered a childhood rich in family life, the result of growing up among a large extended family. Her grandmother, a former slave, was a wonderful storyteller who shared her book collection with her grandchildren. Rollins recalled her grandmother's influence in More Books by More People; Interviews with 65 Authors of Books for Children: "She gave us all the books that belonged to her master who was the father of her children, one of whom was my father. We enjoyed the books in his library, even though most of them were medical books. But I would read anything and everything."

The Hill family moved to the Indian Territory—now Oklahoma—when Rollins was still a child. She attended a school for African Americans founded by her family, and her mother was one of the first black teachers in the territory. As Rollins grew older few educational opportunities existed for blacks nearby, so she enrolled in black secondary schools in Missouri, Mississippi, and Kansas. She graduated from a segregated boarding school in Quindoro, Kansas, in 1916.

After graduating, Rollins taught briefly in Beggs, Oklahoma, before enrolling in Howard University in Washington, D.C. After a year at Howard she returned to Oklahoma where she married Joseph Walter Rollins in 1918. The couple had a son, Joseph Walter Rollins Jr., in 1920. They moved to Chicago, where Joseph Sr. worked for the Young Men's Christian Association.

Began Career as Librarian

In 1927 Rollins combined her love of books and teaching by taking a job as a children's librarian at the Harding Square Branch of the Chicago Public Library. When the George Cleveland Hall Branch Library opened in 1923 she was named head of the children's department there. This branch was the first to be located in the city's black neighborhoods and it served a diverse population representing all socioeconomic levels.

The library system helped Rollins continue her education. She enrolled in library training at Columbia College of the University of Chicago and remained a children's department librarian at Hall Library for 36 years. Serving the community in a caring, imaginative way, she guided two generations of young patrons to discover and love books and reading. Rollins organized events to draw people into the library and was dedicated to educating patrons on the contributions of black people. Storytelling sessions were a major part of her work, as she explained to an Illinois Libraries contributor: "Storytelling is a wonderful way of breaking down barriers, or getting acquainted with new people, and drawing groups and individuals together. Hearing a wonderful story well told, can bring escape from hunger, from drab surroundings, from hate and rejection, and escape from injustices of all kinds."

Advised Publishers

Rollins believed that children's programs could only be effective if the adults in the children's lives also took an interest. Encouraging and teaching parents and teachers to become involved with children and books, she organized a reading guidance clinic for families and maintained close contact with Patent-Teacher Association groups. Rollins's library programs often centered on black history. She felt a strong need to teach children about their heritage, but she was frustrated by the lack of books available on the topic during the 1930s. She found that when children asked for her help with a school paper about a black person, there were no appropriate books in the library. "For many years books about Negro children followed a stereotyped pattern," Rollins was quoted as remarking on the University of Mississippi Library web site. "The characters portrayed were the barefoot menial, or the red-lipped clown. Rarely did the Negro character in a story where there were other children ever take part in the story as equals. Illustrators, it seemed, could not resist presenting the quaint 'pickaninny' type."

Rollins wanted her young patrons to read books that honestly portrayed African Americans in all phases of life. "Children as they are growing up need special interpretations of the lives of other peoples," she maintained, "[and] must be helped to an understanding and tolerance. They cannot develop these qualities through contacts with others, if those closest to them are prejudiced and unsympathetic with other races and groups. Tolerance and understanding can be gained through reading the right books."

Rollins made it her mission to improve the image of blacks in children's books and to teach her young patrons about their heritage. She formed a Negro history club and a series of appreciation hours in which she taught children about the contributions of blacks. She researched and collected materials for her programs and made publishers aware of the need for books about African American culture and history. "I got to be quite a nuisance for the publishers, writing them letters on top of letters for more information," she told a contributor to American Libraries.

Her interest in African American books led Rollins to complete a research paper on the topic of blacks in children's books for one of her library classes at the University of Chicago. She became recognized as an evaluator of children's literature and became a member of the Chicago Public Library's advisory committee on book selection. Rollins transformed her research paper into a mimeographed list of books relating to blacks that was used by children's librarians. This list evolved into one of the first significant publications on African American literature for children. Published in 1941 by the National Council of Teachers of English as We Build Together, A Reader's Guide to Negro Life and Literature for Elementary and High School Use, the pamphlet includes introductory text about how to write and select books about blacks and an annotated bibliography of recommended books. We Build Together raised the level of consciousness among librarians, teachers, and publishers to the need for more honest portrayals of African Americans in children's literature. The landmark publication was revised in 1948 and 1967.

Earned National Recognition

Her 1941 publication earned Rollins a national reputation as an authority on African American children's books. Publishers, becoming aware of the stereotypes they presented in their books, began seeking Rollins's and other black librarians' and teachers' advice. Many publishers and authors sent manuscripts to Rollins for evaluation, and she was asked to serve on the editorial advisory boards of World Book Encyclopedia, American Educator, and Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. She chaired the Jane Addams Book Award committee for the Women's International League for Peace and Justice in 1964-1965 and in 1962 traveled to Oslo, Norway, to present the award to Aimee Sommerfelt, author of The Road to Agra.

Many universities and professional associations invited Rollins to teach, write, and lecture on African American books. She contributed articles to many journals, including American Childhood, Illinois Libraries and Junior Libraries. She lectured at Fisk University, Morgan State College, the University of Mississippi, Rosary College, San Francisco State College, and the University of Chicago, and taught a class in children's literature at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Rollins also became involved in professional associations. She was active in the Illinois State Library Association, the Catholic Library Association, and the American Library Association (ALA). She worked on many ALA committees and became the association's first black president in 1957. In 1972 she was the first African American to receive an honorary lifetime membership in the ALA.

Rollins retired in August 1963 at the age of 66. She had been involved with books her entire life and had met many authors in her role as a children's librarian. In retirement she began writing books of her own, among them juvenile biographies of black men and women. Among her books are They Showed the Way, 1964; Famous American Negro Poets for Children, 1965; Famous Negro Entertainers of Stage and Screen, 1967; and Black Troubadour, Langston Hughes, 1971. Her biography on Hughes was inspired by her own friendship with Hughes, whom she had met during the 1930s at a Works Project Administration-sponsored writer's project hosted by her library.

In 1963 Rollins wrote Christmas Gif': An Anthology of Christmas Poems, Songs, and Stories Written by and about Negroes. The title, Christmas Gif', was based on a holiday tradition celebrated by her family that originated in the days of slavery. The book includes selections from Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, who had been a patron at the George Cleveland Hall Branch Library as a child.

Received Many Awards

Rollins's role in elevating the status of African Americans in children's books earned her many awards from library, education, and humanitarian organizations. She received the American Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1952, the Library Letter Award from the ALA in 1953, and the Grolier Foundation Award from the ALA in 1955. She also received the Good American Award of the Chicago Committee of One Hundred in 1962, the Children's Reading Round Table award in 1963, and the New Jersey Library and Media Association's Coretta Scott King Award in 1971. In 1974 Columbia College, Chicago awarded Rollins a doctorate of humane letters, and three years later the Chicago Public Library dedicated a room in her name at the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library.

Rollins died in Chicago on February 3, 1979. She was 81 years old. In her memory, the School of Library and Information Science at North Carolina Central University presents the biennial Charlemae Hill Rollins Colloquium, while the ALA's Library Service to Children division presents the Charlemae Rollins President's Program at its annual summer conferences.

The research Rollins conducted in her lifetime included studies of Head Start, African American bibliography, and segregation. Her papers and journals are housed at the African-American Resources Program at the School of Library and Information Sciences, North Carolina Central University.