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.
Louise S. Robbins tells the story of the political, social,
economic, and cultural threads that became interwoven in a
particular time and place, creating a strong web of opposition.
This combination of forces ensnared Ruth Brown and her
colleagues-for the most part women and African Americans-who
championed the cause 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.
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