150 YEARS STRONG

Jesse Jackson and a Legacy of Library Activism

In 1960, on a visit home to Greenville, South Carolina, during a college break, 18-year-old freshman Jesse Jackson entered the whites-only Greenville County Public Library, accompanied by a group of African American high school and college students. Jackson and his group started browsing, sat down, and began to read, as should be the right of any community member. A few minutes later, the police arrived to arrest them for “disorderly conduct.”

Though he would become known internationally for an extraordinary and broad career as a movement leader and advocate for racial and economic justice, Rev. Jesse Jackson has long occupied an essential place in the history of America’s libraries as one of the Greenville Eight, arrested for demanding dignity and respect in his community’s public library.

Three newspaper clippings. Headlines from left to right read: "8 Negroes Sit-In At Library Here", "Negroes Enter Library: 7 Leave as Police Arrive", "Library Is Open For 'Any Citizen'"
Clippings from The Greenville News and The Piedmont, courtesy of the Greenville (S.C.) County Library System

The 18-year-old Jackson and his fellow students were instrumental in pressing for the desegregation of Greenville’s public libraries, an outcome achieved through litigation and public pressure in the months following their arrest. The American Library Association deeply mourns Rev. Jackson’s passing and celebrates the legacy he created.

Throughout his remarkable life of activism and public service, Rev. Jackson consistently championed libraries as centers of knowledge where individuals and communities can learn about their past, present, and future. In 1972, Rev. Jackson, then involved with Operation PUSH (Program to Save Humanity), was presented with the Black Caucus Award for Distinguished Service to Humanity by past Black Caucus chairman E. J. Josey at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, where he spoke to a filled ballroom of attendees about the need for change in the library.

Black and white archival photo of a young Rev. Jesse Jackson standing at a podium
Jesse Jackson speaks during the 1972 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.

Jackson would continue his work supporting libraries alongside ALA for years. In 1991, he shared the stage with authors Judy Blume and Michael Blake, then-House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich, and Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas at ALA’s 1991 Rally for America’s Libraries in Atlanta. And in 2009, he joined ALA’s executive director Keith Michael Fiels for a reading event to kick off National Library Week, discussing libraries’ role as community hubs of literacy and learning.

From his earliest foundational activism that helped change America—and America’s libraries—in profoundly important ways, to his lifelong dedication to empowering everyone who calls this country home, Rev. Jackson did not stray from his basic demands of dignity and equality.

150 YEARS STRONG

THE OFFICIAL ANNIVERSARY BLOG

An index card tracking an ALA conference exhibition hall exhibitor from 1924-1947.

The Heartbeat of the Hall: 150 Years of Exhibitors Who Shaped Our Conference

ALA Conference Services June 3, 2026

Every year as the doors of ALA’s Annual Conference and Exhibition swing open, the exhibition hall comes alive. It is a ritual that has been repeated, refined, and reimagined throughout ALA’s 150-year history. And at the center of it all, providing the innovations, solutions, and partnerships that have propelled our profession forward, are the exhibitors. To mark this milestone, we look back at the rich history of exhibitors at the conference—where it began, how it grew, and why, 150 years on, the exhibition floor remains one of the most vital spaces in our professional world.

Librarian at the Reference Desk in Camp Johnston Library, from the ALA Archives.

Charles R. Green at Camp Johnston: ‘We Can Find Such a Man’

Cara Bertram May 28, 2026

During the summer of 1918, Charles Green, a librarian from the Massachusetts Agriculture College, served as the Acting Librarian for Camp Johnston in Jacksonville, Florida. While his tenure was brief, the Charles R. Green Papers in the American Library Association (ALA) Archives reveal Green’s rapid appointment and promotion. It also shows how quickly circumstances could change within the ALA’s Library War Service and the adaptability of its volunteers.

Detail of letter from Lynn Blaylock to the Intellectual Freedom Committee.

‘Nothing Could Have Astonished Me More’: The Challenge of Consumer Reports

Cara Bertram May 21, 2026

Due to communist hysteria before and after World War II, many organizations and publications were under suspicion of being affiliated with or promoting the Communist party, including Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, the product testing and consumer advocacy magazine. As a result, Ohio schools banned the use of Consumer Reports in the classroom. While the ban was short-lived, the questions about it were not and the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee noticed the attempts to ban the publication.

A detail from the Library Bill of Rights, 1967.

The History of the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund

Faith McConnon May 19, 2026

To financially support librarians who have been denied employment rights or discriminated against on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, color, creed, religion, age, disability, or place of national origin or denied employment rights because of their defense of intellectual freedom, ALA created the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund, named in honor of a staunch defender of intellectual freedom and editor of ALA’s Newsletter on Intellectual Freedom.

A Seat at the Table feature graphic

A Seat at the Table: Reflections from Eight ALA Trailblazers

American Libraries May 14, 2026

For 150 years, the American Library Association has shaped the landscape of libraries and the profession itself—but its leadership has often reflected the racial and gender biases of society at large. American Libraries spoke with eight barrier-busting Association leaders about their struggles, triumphs, breakdowns, and breakthroughs. The stories and lessons they share reveal how diversity fuels and transforms the power of libraries everywhere.