Virgia Brocks-Shedd
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Virgia Brocks-Shedd | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | June 22, 1943 |
| Died | December 4, 1992 (aged 49) |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Librarian |
Virgia Brocks-Shedd (June 22, 1943 – December 4, 1992) was an American librarian and poet. She was the head librarian at the Tougaloo College library and was a founding member of multiple library associations, working to ensure African-Americans were represented in libraries. Brocks-Shedd published poetry in multiple venues and inspired an appreciation for literature in generations of students.
Virgia Lee Brocks was born June 22, 1943, in Carpenter, Mississippi.[1][2] When the Carpenter sawmill closed, her family moved to the community of Bel Pine.[2] Brocks-Shedd became a boarding student at Piney Woods Country Life School at age thirteen and lived at the school until 1961.[2]
While an undergraduate at Jackson State University, she studied under poet Margaret Walker Alexander, who she described as an inspirational force throughout her life.[3][4] Brocks-Shedd earned her bachelor's degree from Jackson State in 1964, and went on to earn a Master of Library Science at Atlanta University the following year.[2]
Career as librarian
After graduating from library school, Brocks-Shedd was hired by Tougaloo College as an assistant librarian.[2] She worked there the majority of her career, and in 1985 she became the director of library services at the college's L. Zenobia Coleman Library.[2][3] Throughout her career, she inspired a love of literature through exposing students to poetry; she also worked to increase the representation of African American authors in Mississippi libraries.[2]
Brocks-Shedd was active in the movement to integrate the Mississippi Library Association.[2] She was one of the founding members of the Society of Mississippi Archivists and the African American Librarians Caucus of Mississippi.[5] She was also a charter member of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.[2] In 1989 Brocks-Shedd was appointed for a five-year term on the Mississippi Library Commission Board of Commissioners;[6] she was the first African-American to lead that board.[2]
