I am of the opinion that you need to tell your kids (or your grandkids, or your neighbors' children, or your elementary school students) about Augusta Braxton Baker --librarian, author, researcher, and all-around creative thinker. An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted on 03/08/2025
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I am of the opinion that you need to tell your kids (or your grandkids, or your neighbors' children, or your elementary school students) about Augusta Braxton Baker --librarian, author, researcher, and all-around creative thinker.
Born in 1911 Baltimore, Maryland, Augusta was raised by a couple of educator/teacher parents themselves --and a very indulgent grandmother who had a singular talent for telling stories to her granddaughter. She graduated from high school at the age of 16 and was then admitted to the University of Pittsburgh --a singular feat for someone of her age and background, at that time. She later expressed a desire to transfer to the New York College for Teachers (which would itself later be known as State University of New York at Albany), but this path was not a smooth one; the school opposed her enrollment on racial grounds and it took an intervention from no less than Eleanor Roosevelt (who sat on the Albany Interracial Council) to advocate for the transfer. Augusta attained a BA in 1933, and then a BS in Library Science in 1934 --the very first African-American to earn such a degree from that college. It was apparent to one and all that literacy was uppermost on her mind.
A few years later she took a job as a children's librarian at the New York Public Library and, mindful of the absence of Black role models in children's literature, quietly found ways to de-emphasize or strategically "re-shelf" titles that depicted Black characters as stereotypically lazy or simple or servile, or illustrated such characters with distorted body features (comically large lips or noses). Her talent as a storyteller frequently brought her to working at the NYPB's 135th Street Harlem Branch, and it was during this time that her orbit intersected with (unsurprisingly!) Arturo Schomberg (see Lesson #131 in this series). Schomberg heartily approved of Augusta's efforts to improve the quality --and selections-- of the children's libraries and directed funding accordingly.
By 1961 Baker had been elevated to the chair of Children's Services Coordinator, a role that oversaw the children's libraries of all 82 branches of the New York Public Library. In turn she also chaired the respective committees that would, eventually, be responsible for creating and awarding both the Newbury Medal and the Caldecott Medal. During this era she met and encouraged the efforts of up-and-coming children's authors including Maurice Sendak, Madeleine L'Engle, and Ezra Jack Keats. In 1969 she also served as a consultant for an experimental new children's television program called Sesame Street.
After 37 years on the job she retired from her beloved NYPL in 1974 and moved to South Carolina, where she assumed the post of "storyteller-in-residence" at the University of South Carolina's College of Library and Information Science. Under her leadership the University collaborated with Richland County Public Library to establish an annual celebration of children's storytelling: "Baker's Dozen: A Celebration of Stories," which continues to this day. She worked at the U. of South Carolina until 1994. Among her publications include a comprehensive bibliography of children's titles for libraries, The Black Experience in Children's Books, which remains to this day an indispensable resource to guard against harmful stereotypes. In 1987 she co-wrote Storytelling: Art and Technique with Ellin Greene. Augusta Baker died in 1998.
For further study (and sharing): Go Forth And Tell (a childrens' book): the Life of Augusta Baker, Librarian and Master Storyteller by Breanna J. McDaniel, illustrated by April Harrison. Penguin Young Readers, target audience Grades K - 3.
Next lesson - Lesson 178: Sarah Keys Evans