Emily Wheelock Reed facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Emily Wheelock Reed
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| Born | 1910 |
| Died | May 19, 2000 (aged 89) Cockeysville, Maryland, U.S.
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| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation | Librarian |
| Known for | civil rights activism |
Emily Wheelock Reed (1910 – May 19, 2000) was an American librarian and civil rights activist. Reed is best known for her work as director of the Alabama Public Library Service Division in Alabama during the civil rights movement, at which time she defended the 1958 Garth Williams children's book, The Rabbits' Wedding.
Early life, education, and career
Emily Wheelock Reed was born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1910. A year following her birth, her family moved to the Midwest, where she was raised and educated in Culver, Indiana. She received her undergraduate degree from Indiana University, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She completed her library degree at the University of Michigan.
Over the span of her career, Reed worked in various librarian capacities for numerous public and academic libraries including the University of Michigan, Florida State University, the Detroit Public Library, Hawaii State Public Library System in Kauai County, the State Library of Louisiana, Alabama Public Library Service Division, the District of Columbia Public Library System, and the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore.
Last years and death
In 1960, Reed left Alabama to become coordinator of adult services for the District of Columbia Library System. Six years later, she became director of adult services at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland, a position she held until her retirement in 1977. Reed died on May 19, 2000 at her retirement community in Cockeysville, Maryland at the age of 89.
Legacy
During the time of The Rabbits' Wedding controversy, the American Library Association (ALA) remained silent on the issue and provided Reed no immediate assistance. Over time, however, the ALA has become much more outspoken and firmly committed to protecting intellectual freedom. To this end, Reed was awarded with the Freedom to Read Foundation Roll of Honor award in July 2000, a month after her death.
The story of The Rabbits' Wedding controversy was given dramatic treatment in a new play by Kenneth Jones, entitled Alabama Story. The play was given its first major reading in May 2013 as part of the Southern Writers' Project at Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Following further readings in Salt Lake City and New York City, Alabama Story received its world premiere at Pioneer Theatre Company, January 9–24, 2015, earning enthusiastic reviews.
Garth Williams, Emily Whitlock Reed, and Senator E.W. Higgins (inspired by Senator E.O. Eddins) are major characters in the six-actor play, which the playwright sets in "the Deep South of the Imagination." The play was a finalist in the 2014 National Playwrights Conference of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and was a 2016 nominee for the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award.
Its second American staging was produced in spring 2016 by Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. FST artistic director Richard Hopkins called it "probably the best Southern play I’ve read in 10 or 20 years". By spring 2023, it will have been seen in more than 40 cities since its 2015 premiere. It made its Montgomery, Alabama premiere in a full production by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in March 2020, but the run was cut short by the week due to the dawning COVID pandemic that would shut down Broadway and theaters across the U.S. for 18 months. In summer 2021, the play was published by Dramatists Play Service, which also administers performance licenses to theaters.
