Baker, Augusta (1911–1998)

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Baker, Augusta (1911–1998)

Storyteller and librarian who pioneered efforts to bring an honest portrayal of ethnic groups to children's literature. Born Augusta Braxton in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 1, 1911; died after a long illness on February 22, 1998; daughter of Winfort J. and Mabel (Gough) Braxton (both teachers); attended University of Pittsburgh, 1927–29; graduated New York State College, Albany, New York, A.B., 1933, B.S. in Library Science, 1934; married James Baker (divorced); married Gordon Alexander, on November 23, 1944; children: (first marriage) James Baker III.

During a 37-year career as a children's librarian and storyteller with the New York Public Library, Augusta Baker influenced the lives of several generations of children. Groundwork for her mission was perhaps laid during her childhood in a family that valued education above all else. The only child of teachers, Baker came from a close-knit family which included a grandmother who enchanted the young Baker with stories that had been handed down from generation to generation. Baker credits these storytelling sessions with both strengthening her imagination and increasing her vocabulary. "I learned new words—long, difficult, beautiful words—for my grandmother did not know about vocabulary control and short sentences."

After graduating from the all-black high school where her father taught, 16-year-old Baker enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh. Entering this predominantly white environment in 1927 presented a new challenge for the black teenager, one she was to face many times. At the end of her sophomore year, she married James Baker, a graduate student in social work. The couple had a son and later divorced. Baker remarried in 1944.

After deciding against a teaching career, Baker went on to receive a library science degree. In 1937, she was hired as assistant to the children's librarian at the New York Public Library's 135th Street branch which served Harlem's black community. Her first survey of the children's collection revealed an appalling lack of material about black history and culture. Harlem's children had little knowledge of their own history, a situation made worse by the often deplorable depictions of blacks in literature. Recalled Baker: "Most of the books which included black characters represented them as shiftless, happy, grinning, dialect-speaking menials. This was what was being written for children and what they read. I was distressed and frustrated."

Realizing she was not alone in her concern, she enlisted the support and financial backing of those who could help and, in 1939, founded the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection, a body of children's books selected for their "unbiased, accurate, well rounded picture of Negro life in all parts of the world." Baker also initiated a number of new services and programs, including concerts, reading clubs, and guest appearance of black artists, writers, diplomats, and other role models. She also began storytelling. Her grandmother's folktales made their way to the ears of a new generation.

Instrumental in expanding her programs into the community, Baker shared her educational values with parents, teachers, and allied agencies. Using her opportunities to speak with publishers and editors of children's books, she shared her concerns about stereotypical representations of blacks in juvenile literature and the lack of substantive material. Through the years, some publishing houses began to respond to the problem.

In 1953, Baker was promoted to assistant coordinator of Children's Services (she later became coordinator), and in 1955 was invited to Trinidad to organize children's library service at the Trinidad Public Library. She also became a visiting lecturer in the school of library service at Columbia University. She continued her program on storytelling, training others in the technique through workshops and lectures, and she produced several reference guides for storytellers, including Stories: A List of Stories to Tell and to Read Aloud, The Talking Tree, and Golden Lynx. In 1971, she published a bibliography, The Black Experience in Children's Books, a listing of books highly rated for their value in intercultural education which has been revised every five years since 1974. In November of that year, she also began a series of weekly broadcasts, "The World of Children's Literature," on WNYC-Radio.

Throughout her career, Augusta Baker was active in numerous professional associations and agencies, and she received countless awards, including the Parent's Magazine Medal Award (1966) for "outstanding service to the Nation's children"; the American Library Association Grolier Award (1968) for "outstanding achievement in guiding and stimulating the reading of children and young people"; the Women's National Book Association Constance Lindsay Skinner Award (1971); and the Catholic Library Association's Regina Medal (1981). In 1989, she became the first recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston Award, presented by the Association of Black Storytellers.

Augusta Baker retired in March 1974. "The black child needs the image of a black librarian—and white children need this image also," she once wrote. "The community needs the black children's librarian who will relate to it and understand the unique problems."