Lillian Haydon Childress Hall

Lillian Haydon Childress Hall (February 24, 1889 – April 23, 1958) was an American librarian. Hall was the first professionally trained African American librarian in Indiana and the first African American to graduate from the Indiana state library school.

Early life and education

Lillian Sunshine Haydon was born February 24, 1889, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Career as librarian

The Cherry Street Library was a racially segregated branch of the Evansville Public Library which had opened in November 1914; it was a Carnegie library and the "first free public library built north of the Ohio River exclusively for African Americans." Her only child, William Hobbs Childress Jr. (1911–1993), served one term in the Kentucky General Assembly.

She died in Indianapolis on April 23, 1958, and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery (Section 98, Lot 1472).

Legacy

Hall was widely regarded as a trailblazer among African Americans in librarianship, especially for the library assistants she mentored, including Hallie Beachem Brooks.