Ella Gaines Yates

Ella Gaines Yates (June 14, 1927 – June 27, 2006) was an American librarian who served as the first African-American director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System in Georgia.

Early life and education

Yates was born into a well known and wealthy family in Atlanta, Georgia. She attended Booker T. Washington High School. She was accepted to Spelman College on July 13, 1944. She wrote in her admission letter to the college, "I wish to come to Spelman, because I feel there is no other college anywhere in the world finer for a girl to receive training to prepare her for higher gain in life. I have always looked forward to entering Spelman College, because Spelman students have a certain air about them that denotes character and culture. I would naturally fall in line." Yates graduated with a bachelor's degree from Spelman in 1949. She met her husband, Clayton Yates, at Morehouse College.

Career

Yates received an MLS degree from Atlanta University in 1951, and went on to be a prominent member of African-American librarianship.

Yates and her family moved to Seattle, Washington, where she established a Library and Learning Resource Center for the Seattle Opportunities Industrialization Center. She also began teaching at the University of Washington's Graduate Library School. She accepted a position as State Librarian of the Virginia State Library in 1986, as the first African-American and the first woman appointed to this position. Yates enjoyed this position, but her tenure was mired in controversy, and she was dismissed in 1990. She returned to the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library as interim director in 1998, but left the position on December 31 due to disputes with the library board.

She was so concerned about the city receiving a fair deal that she found time to earn a doctoral degree from Atlanta Law School in 1979 so she could understand contracts.

Yates expanded library services for the disabled, ethnic groups, and prisoners. She brought the library into the Fulton County Jail, making it the first penal institution in the country with a public library branch.

Death

Yates died on June 27, 2006, of pancreatic cancer, at the age of 79.