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Jean Blackwell Hutson

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Jean Blackwell Hutson
Born
Jean Blackwell

(1914-09-07)September 7, 1914
Summerfield, Florida, United States
DiedFebruary 4, 1998(1998-02-04) (aged 83)
Harlem Hospital, New York
Alma materBarnard College,
Columbia University School of Library Service
OccupationsLibrarian, curator, writer, archivist
Spouse(s)Andy Razaf (1939–1947)
John Hutson (1950-1998)
ChildrenJean Francis (d. 1992)
Parent(s)Paul O. Blackwell (farmer)
Sarah Myers Blackwell (elementary schoolteacher)

Jean Blackwell Hutson (born Jean Blackwell; September 7, 1914 – February 4, 1998) was an American librarian, archivist, writer, curator, educator, and later chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.[1][2] The Schomburg Center dedicated their Research and Reference Division in honor of Hutson.[3][4]

Life and education

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Jean Blackwell was born in Summerfield, Florida, and moved to Baltimore, Maryland, with her mother in 1918.[5] She graduated valedictorian from Frederick Douglass High School in 1929.[6] Blackwell continued her education at the University of Michigan, studying psychiatry, and transferred to Barnard College, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1935.[6] After completing her bachelor's degree, she applied to Enoch Pratt Library Training School, but was not admitted.[7] She brought a lawsuit against Enoch Pratt which she ultimately won, believing that she was denied entrance because she was African-American.[7] Blackwell eventually received her master's degree in library science from the Columbia University School of Library Service in 1936.[2][1] She also acquired her teaching certificate from Columbia University in 1941.[8][9]

Hutson was married twice, to Andy Razaf from 1939 to 1947 and to John Hutson from 1952 to 1957.[5] She had a daughter, Jean Frances Hutson.[6]

Career

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From 1936 to 1984, Hutson worked at multiple branches of the New York Public Library system,[5][6] with a brief period as a school librarian at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School in Baltimore, Maryland.[10] Her most notable professional position was as curator and chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture[10][9] during which time she developed the Schomburg Dictionary Catalog.[2] The collection at the Schomburg Center grew under her guidance to become "a major source for research on Black history and culture."[1]

In the 1940s, during her time at the Schomburg Center, Hutson co-founded the Schomburg Corporation, a non-profit organization that lobbied for funding for the research center.[11] Hutson was instrumental in marketing efforts that secured state, federal, and foundation grants for the following decades.[12] These funds went towards preservation, assessment of the collection, and building a new facility.[12] Under her charge, the center became well known in the Civil rights and Black Panther movements[12] and in 1980, the new facility, designed by Max Bond, was opened to the public.[12]

While she served at the Schomburg Center, Hutson also took on an adjunct professorship at the City College of New York.[7] At the behest of her friend and former Schomburg page Joseph Borome, a librarian at Columbia University, Hutson taught courses in Black studies at the City College from 1962 to 1971.[7] She resigned from the role after supporters of Black studies called for a more radical approach.[7]

Hutson's teaching resulted in a personal invitation from Kwame Nkrumah, the president of Ghana, for Hutson to assist with the development and creation of the African Collection at the University of Ghana.[13] She moved to Ghana, where she spent 1964 and 1965[1][9] as the assistant librarian in charge of Africana.[7] Hutson was also successful in making the Africana collection inclusive of Africans in Africa as well as the African diaspora.[7]

During Hutson's lifetime, she was involved in many different civic, social, professional and cultural organizations. She was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the NAACP, the American Library Association, the African Studies Association, and the Urban League.[6]

Hutson retired in 1980.[13] She remained actively involved in organizations such as the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science's Task Force on Library and Information Services to Cultural Minorities in the 1980s.[1] She also wrote a chapter on the Schomburg Center in Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History (1990).[1]

Recognition

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Hutson received the 1966 Annual Heritage Award from the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History[2] and the 1980 Professional Service Award from the Black Librarians Caucus of the American Library Association.[6]

In 1977 she received an honorary doctorate from King Memorial College.[8] She was honored by Barnard College in 1990 and by Columbia University in 1992.[8]

She was featured in Brian Lanker's 1989 exhibit I Dream a World.[14][8]

SUNY Buffalo had a residency program in her name from 1992-2007.[5][8] In 1994, the Jean Hutson General Research and Reference Division was named in her honor at the Schomburg Center.[6][8]

Death

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On February 4, 1998, Hutson died at Harlem Hospital Center in New York City at age 83.[5][15]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Easterbrook, David L. (1999). "Jean Blackwell Hutson, 1914-1998". ASA News. 32 (2): 5. doi:10.1017/S0002021400016388.
  2. ^ a b c d Gunn, A. (1994). "Hutson, Jean Blackwell." Black Women in America. Vol. 1, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, p. 603.
  3. ^ "Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division". New York Public Library.
  4. ^ "Schomburg Archival Collections on Microfilm: Home". Research Guides at New York Public Library Research Centers. Retrieved 2019-01-22.
  5. ^ a b c d e Smith, Dinitia (February 7, 1998). "Jean Hutson, Schomburg Chief, Dies at 83". The New York Times.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Barlow-Ochshorn, Sarah (2018-05-18). "Librarian and Archivist of Black Culture: Jean Blackwell Hutson". Barnard Archives. Wordpress.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Johnson-Cooper, Glendora (1996). "African-American Historical Continuity: Jean Blackwell Hutson and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture". In Hildebrand, Suzanne (ed.). Reclaiming the American library past : Writing the Women In. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Pub. pp. 27–51. ISBN 1567502334.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Gubert, B. (2006)."Hutson, Jean Blackwell." Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, edited by Colin A. Palmer, 2nd ed., Vol. 3, Macmillan Reference USA, p. 1085.
  9. ^ a b c Hildenbrand, Suzanne (2000). "Library Feminism and Library Women's History: Activism and Scholarship, Equity and Culture". Libraries & Culture. 35 (1): 60. JSTOR 25548798.
  10. ^ a b "Jean Blackwell Hutson (1914-1998): Culture Keeper Extraordinaire". Little Known Black Librarian Facts. 15 February 2015.
  11. ^ Herndon, Lisa (2025-01-09). "Arturo Schomburg & Jean Blackwell Hutson—They Started off on the Wrong Foot. Their Legacies Put Them in Lockstep". NYPL Blog.
  12. ^ a b c d Howard, Sharon (2013-03-15), "Hutson, Jean Blackwell", African American Studies Center, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.34473, ISBN 978-0-19-530173-1, retrieved 2026-04-30{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  13. ^ a b Easterbrook, David L. (14 July 2016). "Jean Blackwell Hutson, 1914-1998". ASA News. 32 (2): 5. doi:10.1017/S0002021400016388.
  14. ^ "Jean Blackwell Hutson". Harvard Art Museums. Retrieved 2026-04-30.
  15. ^ "Jean Blackwell Hutson, Ex-Chief of Schomburg Center, Dies". Jet. Vol. 93, no. 13. Johnson Publishing Company. February 23, 1998. p. 17. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
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