Bartlesville Public Library, Board Files of Russell W. Davis, 1950

Largely correspondence between Russell W. Davis, chairman of the board of the Bartlesville Public Library, and others; as well as newspaper clippings regarding certain materials in the Bartlesville Public Library collection and the dismissal of librarian Ruth W. Brown in 1950.

In 1919 Ruth W. Brown (1891-1975) was hired as the head of the Bartlesville [Oklahoma] Public Library. In 1946, Brown helped established the Committee on the Practice of Democracy, which was the first Congress of Racial Equality group in that part of the country. Brown was dismissed from her job as head librarian in 1950 due to the library carrying what was then deemed to be subversive materials: Two left-wing magazines and Soviet Russia Today, a propaganda magazine. During the city council hearing to discuss this issue, questions arose about her personal life, particularly her activities with racial integration. Brown received her termination notice over the phone, never receiving written confirmation. She appealed this decision up to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, where she eventually lost her case.

Finding Aid: Ruth W. Brown Collection, 1949-1979 (MS113)