City of Women Honoree
Ethel Martin Bolden
This National Library Month, we honor barrier-breaking librarian, and community historian, Ethel Martin Bolden. Beginning in 1944, Ms. Bolden established libraries in all but three of the all-Black Richland District One schools, where she placed particular emphasis on the collecting of books documenting America’s black history. This ethos continued when she was asked to integrate Dreher High School in 1968 as its head librarian; Bolden once wrote, “A lack of black history leaves the student only half educated in American history, and only half prepared for the American future.”
