Harris, Rachel D.

Rachel D. Harris was born in Louisville, KY. The first African American woman library department director in Kentucky, she was the children's librarian at the Louisville Western Colored Branch Library and later became the manager of the Eastern Colored Branch Library. Harris also assisted with the development of the Georgetown Colored Branch Library and the Lincoln Institute Library. She was a colleague of Thomas Fountain Blue; when he died in 1935, Harris became the new director of the Louisville Public Library Colored Department. She was the wife of Everett G. Harris. For more see The Encyclopedia of Louisville, ed. by J. E. Kleber; and Library Service to African Americans in Kentucky, by R. F. Jones. See also Rachel Davis Harris and the Colored Branches of the Louisville Free Public Library, Louisville, Kentucky, 04/28/2014, in the Little Known Black Librarian Facts blog.