Effie Lee Morris


Effie Lee Morris was an African American children's librarian, educator, and activist, best known for her pioneering public library services for minorities and the visually-impaired. Morris developed Cleveland Public Library's first Negro History Week and was New York Public Library's first children's specialist for visually-impaired patrons. She was the first coordinator of children's services at San Francisco Public Library, where she was also the first African American to hold an administrative position.
An active leader in advocacy organizations, Morris served as president of the Public Library Association—the first woman and first African American person to do so. Morris also served on the committees for prominent children's book awards, including the Caldecott Medal, Newbery Medal, and Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal. Morris wrote the original selection criteria for the Coretta Scott King Award to become an official award for the American Library Association in 1982.
Morris received many distinguished awards during her lifetime and posthumously. The ALA conferred their highest honor, honorary membership, on Morris in 2008. In 2017, she was inducted posthumously into the California Library Association's Hall of Fame.

Education and personal life

Morris grew up in segregated Richmond, Virginia. At the age of eight, she moved with her family to Cleveland, Ohio, where her father was head chef with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Morris and her sister were among only a few African-Ameirican students at their elementary school in Cleveland. Reading was a part of Morris's life from an early age. After discovering her local Mount Pleasant branch of the Cleveland Public Library, she delighted in playing librarian by organizing her books on the front porch.
Morris was valedictorian at John Adams High School and won a scholarship to the University of Chicago, where she studied for three years. She returned home to Cleveland after her father fell ill and finished her undergraduate career at Western Reserve University, from which she received two bachelor's degrees: one in Social Sciences, and another in Library Science. She studied under Harriet Long, who specialized in training children's librarians. Morris returned to Case Western for graduate school, earning her Master of Science in Library Science in 1956. Her thesis was titled "A Mid-Century Survey of the Presentation of the American Negro in Literature for Children Published in the United States between 1700 and 1950."
Morris married Leonard Virgil Jones in Honolulu, Hawai’i on August 25, 1971. At the time of their marriage, Jones was Assistant Vice President of Fidelity Savings and Loan Association. A graduate of University of California, Berkeley, Jones played football for coach Pappy Waldorf. Jones remained active at Berkeley, serving as a trustee of the Cal Athletic Foundation and a director of the Cal Alumni Association.
Morris always wore a pendant of an owl, which was her personal symbol of excellence and a reference to The Three Owls column written by New York Public Library children's librarian Anne Carroll Moore. The column was the first series of children's book reviews to be published by the New York Herald Tribune. Moore's three owls represent the author, illustrator, and critic; Moore's fourth [|owl] represents the reader.

Career

Cleveland Public Library (1945-1955)

Morris's library career began during college at the Cleveland Public Library, where she worked in a branch serving a majority African American community. She focused on literacy for African American children and children in low-income urban areas. She established the library's first Negro History Week celebration for children, for which she developed the programming and suggested reading list.

New York Public Library (1955-1963)

In 1955, New York Public Library recruited Morris away from Cleveland. She worked in The Bronx and became the library's first children's specialist for visually-impaired patrons. The coordinator of children's services, Francis Landis Spane, allocated grant money for Morris to find materials for visually-impaired children. Morris was the only librarian in the country working with blind children and advocated for new books to be written for this population. When blind children throughout the country wrote to her for books, Morris worked with the National Braille Association to secure new adaptations of children's books. This included braille editions as well as multi-sensory adaptations using fabrics as illustrations. During her time in New York, Morris served as president of the National Braille Association and chair of the Library of Congress's Committee for Book Selection for Blind Children.

San Francisco Public Library (1963-1977)

Morris moved from New York to San Francisco in 1963 to become the first children's services coordinator at San Francisco Public Library. She was also the first African American to hold an administrative position at the library. By 1973, she was still only one of ten African American librarians working in the San Francisco Public Library system.
In 1964, Morris established the library's Children's Historical and Research Collection, featuring out-of-print books for young people that depicted ethnic stereotypes, in order to highlight the changing portrayals of ethnic and minority groups. The collection was renamed in Morris's honor in 1981. In 1969, Morris helped establish the library's first African-American History program, which included a visit by five African American authors and illustrators, including author Lorenz Graham.
A consummate advocate for children, Morris once advised the library's architects that the proposed railings in the children's section were dangerous for children, as they had been set too wide. During her fourteen-year tenure, Morris wrote the library's declaration of children's rights, translated the library's card application into five languages, established a city-wide summer reading program, and wrote booklists for the annual event. In 1975, Morris used a Library Services and Construction Act grant to establish "Dial-a-Story", a 24-hour phone line where callers could listen to a three-minute recorded story for preschool-aged children.

Public Library Association presidency (1971-1972)

From 1971 to 1972 Morris was the first African American and first woman to serve as president of the Public Library Association.

Post-library career

After leaving San Francisco Public Library, Morris worked as a senior editor of urban education at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich from 1978 to 1979.
After her retirement, she taught courses on children's literature the University of San Francisco, Mills College, Case Western Reserve University, and Clark Atlanta University.
In 2004, Morris delivered the commencement address to graduates of the UCLA School of Library and Information Science.

Leadership and advocacy

Awards and honors

Posthumous tributes

Quotes

  • "he most important thing is that children continue to read. The opportunity to make their own decisions about what they read can lead to a new awareness of the role of reading in their lives."
  • "For centuries, our African American heritage has been shared through the oral tradition and then increasingly through growing amounts of print and nonprint materials. Now, technological changes are affecting the development and provision of informational resources. Librarians play a major role and should be leaders in providing continuing access to the African American identity with careful preservation of materials and with challenging guidance to all users."