Wallace Van Jackson

Wallace Van Jackson (May 6, 1900 – December 14, 1982) was an American librarian and civil rights activist. He was the director of several academic libraries over his career and was respected for developing collections that promoted the history of African Americans; he was also instrumental in creating reference services and building library collections for multiple libraries in Africa. Van Jackson was part of a group that successfully challenged voter discrimination against African Americans in 1944 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Early life and education Wallace Van Jackson was born in Richmond, Virginia on May 6, 1900.

In 1934 he earned bachelor's degrees from Virginia Union University and a library science degree from Hampton Institute. While at VUU, he taught one of the earliest courses on African-American history. He worked as a consultant for the Alabama State College from 1952 to 1954, directing their book acquisition project and drawing up architectural plans for the library building. Van Jackson was outspoken in his criticism of ALA before and after the conference, describing the segregation of black librarians as "a shameful slide backward" in Library Journal. The case was settled out of court with the registrar agreeing to send the names to the polls. his citation read, in part:

In 1972 he was honored as a life member of the Virginia Library Association.