Bertha Pleasant Williams in 1943.
Bertha Pleasant Williams' grave in Greenwood Cemetery.
Bertha Pleasant Williams
The first African American professional librarian in Montgomery, Alabama, Bertha Pleasant Williams received her degree from Atlanta University in 1949, now Clark Atlanta University. In 1948, before graduating with her library degree, Williams began working as a librarian at the Montgomery City-County Public Library. In 1960 she became manager of the segregated Union Street Branch, then the only library available for African Americans in Montgomery. She remained with the system after integration in 1963. Bertha Pleasant Williams also participated in the Civil Rights Movement as an activist and founding member of the Women's Political Council.
After her death in 2008, the Rosa Parks Avenue Branch was renamed in her honor. Her legacy remains well-remembered within the Montgomery City-County Public Library. Emphemera, photographs, and news clippings can be viewed at the Bertha Pleasant Williams Library at 1276 Rosa L. Parks Ave. [6]
We particularly thank Shirley Bridges of the Bertha Pleasant Williams Library for her research assistance and to the surviving family members of Bertha Pleasant Williams for allowing us to memorialize this dynamic individual.
Bertha Pleasant Williams later in life.
Union Street Library today (now closed).