Rice Estes

Rice Smith Estes (1907 - 1996) was an American librarian known for his activism against segregated public libraries in the United States.

Early life and education Estes was born and raised in South Carolina. His parents were Elliott Estes Jr. and Sadie Jane Calhoun. He graduated from the University of South Carolina and got a master's degree in English literature from the University of Southern California and a master's degree in library science from the Pratt Institute. At the Pratt Institute he met and married Eleanor Estes (née Rosenfield) in 1932. They had one child, Helena, born in 1948, who became a librarian.

Career After college, Estes got a job at Brooklyn College where he worked as a librarian while his wife wrote children's books, and he also taught library science at the Pratt Institute.

Estes later became the Head Librarian and Acting Dean of the Pratt Institute in 1955 until he retired from there in 1972. Estes and his wife later moved to New Haven where Estes became an associate librarian at Albertus Magnus College.

Library activism In 1960, Eric Moon published Estes's article "Segregated Libraries" in Library Journal which started a debate about library associations' inaction regarding segregated public libraries in southern states in the United States. Rice wrote that the American Library Association "has been completely ineffective about the issue. It has never even passed a resolution on the subject. It has never commended the efforts of Negro readers and organizations who have tried to end library segregation by doing everything from making a mild request to staging library sit-ins. It has not attempted to bring a law suit or lent its name as amicus curiae to any group bringing a suit."