The dismissal of Miss Ruth Brown : civil rights, censorship, and the American library / by Louise S. Robbins.
In 1950 Ruth W. Brown, librarian at the Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Public Library, was summarily 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 had become active in promoting raci...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Norman :
University of Oklahoma Press,
[2000]
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| Summary: | In 1950 Ruth W. Brown, librarian at the Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Public Library, was summarily 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 had become active in promoting racial equality and had helped form 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 McCarthy era, foregrounding those who labored for racial justice, sometimes at great cost, before the civil rights movement. In addition, it reveals a masking of concerns that led even Brown's allies to obscure the cause of racial integration for which she fought. Relevant today, 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. (Inspiration for the 1956 Bette Davis film Storm Center.). |
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| Physical Description: | xv, 237 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm |
| Awards: | Willa Literary Award for nonfiction, 2001. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-222) and index. |
| ISBN: | 0806131632 9780806131634 0806133147 9780806133140 |