Charlemae Hill Rollins

Charlemae Hill Rollins (June 20, 1897 – February 3, 1979)

After completing her elementary education, Rollins attended black high schools in St. Louis, Missouri, Holly Springs, Mississippi, and Quindoro, Kansas, where she graduated in 1916. After earning her teaching certificate, she taught at the school her family had set up before leaving to attend Howard University. She returned after a year to marry Joseph Walter Rollins on April 8, 1918. The couple moved to Chicago in 1919, after Joseph returned from World War I. Their son, Joseph Walter Rollins Jr., was born in 1920.

Rollins became a children's librarian at the Chicago Public Library in 1927. Initially, she worked at the Hardin Square Branch Library, where she became known as a prolific storyteller. It is not surprising Rollins chose to concentrate in children's literature, calling learning to read at a young age "the best thing I ever did." Rollins's grandmother, a former slave, gave her books and encouraged her to read, helping to inspire Rollins to become a librarian. In such an atmosphere, no library was founded for the community until the George Cleveland Hall Branch Library opened in 1932. The first branch built in a black neighborhood, the library had a variety of patrons from various racial & economic groups. She also taught a course in Children's Literature at Roosevelt University from 1949 to 1979.

Rollins crusaded to change the content in many children's and young adult books to accurately portray black life. Her first publication in 1941, We Build Together: A Reader's Guide to Negro Life and Literature for Elementary and High School Use, is a bibliography of books suitable for young African American children that sought to eliminate negative black stereotypes. Biographies, nonfiction, and sports genres are represented alongside picture and fiction books for children and young adults.

Rollins was primarily concerned with providing materials that portrayed African Americans in a positive light, as well as materials by and about blacks. We Build Together was written to create an index of “books that Negro children could enjoy without self-consciousness, books with which they could identify satisfactorily, books that white children could read and so learn what Negro young people and families were like.” Her stories were based on positive news articles about blacks, folk tales, or stories her grandmother had told her.

After retiring, Rollins turned her hand to writing. She published Christmas Gif': An Anthology of Christmas Poems, Songs and Stories Written by and about Negroes in 1963. Her passion for storytelling is reflected in the variety of excerpts from Paul Laurence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, and Gwendolyn Brooks.

The rest of Rollins's books were biographies, in keeping with her sentiment that they were the best kind of books for young children: “[The genre] includes the greatest number of Negro authors. It is here that all children can build a firm foundation of knowledge of and respect for Negroes. They will be prepared for the first introduction to the concept of different skin color…They now can feel that America is indeed their country.”

Books In all, Rollins wrote or co-wrote six books: We Build Together: A Reader's Guide to Negro Life and Literature for Elementary and High School Use, 1941 Christmas Gif', an Anthology of Christmas Poems, Songs and Stories Written by and about Negroes, 1963 They Showed the Way: Forty American Negro Leaders, 1964 Famous American Negro Poets, 1965 Famous Negro Entertainers of Stage, Screen, and TV, 1967 Black Troubadour: Langston Hughes, 1971

She also edited and contributed to many other works.

Honors and awards Rollins received American Library Association Honorary Membership in 1972, The program takes place annually at the American Library Association's Annual Conference.

Rollins was honored by Columbia College in 1974 with a doctorate of humane letters. Despite her long career promoting education, this was the first degree she had ever received.

Additionally, she received:

American Brotherhood Award, National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1952 American Library Association Letter, 1953 Three (3) Negro Centennial Awards, 1963 Torchbearers Award of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, 1972 Plaque from the Black Librarians' Caucus, 1976