Mildred Lockett Lipscombe

Mar 23, 2022

in 1910-1929 (Born), African Americans, Education, Museums and Libraries

1922-2025?

Mildred Lipscombe was one the library’s first Black librarians (possibly the third), hired 8 years after Theresa Moore, and after Elitea Allison. After graduating Virginia Union University, and then the University of Illinois (MLIS), she became a junior librarian in 1946.

Personnel Reporter, Aug 1946

In 1949, she took place in a library course on “Great Books” and is quoted by the Newark News commenting on the Declaration of Independence “all men are created free and equal”. Mildred said, “I didn’t think Jefferson was even thinking of Indians and slaves when he wrote that phrase but it gave this country a start in the right direction.”

In 1950, still listed as a junior librarian, the Trenton Time’s reported she served on an NJLA Panel on stereotypes in children’s literature explaining “the significance of stereotype and the whole problem of human relations to the children’s librarian”. According to the Newark News she urged making children “familiar with books which give a fair picture of all groups”.

By 1953, she is listed as a Senior Librarian in the Education Division.

1952 Photo from Newark Library, from Library Annual Report

In 1956, Library Journal wrote she was serving as an Army Special Services Librarian, GS-7 Germany/France command. By 1958, she was back in Newark and put on a program called “Looking at Current Broadway Plays”.

She was married to Christopher Lipscombe in 1961 who died in 1994.

In 1968, still at the Newark Library Education Division, she wrote “The Education of the Afro American: A Bibliography”.

In 1986, still working at NPL, was a panelist on a panel on “Black Women in NJ History”.

In 2000, she wrote an entry on Grace Baxter Fenderson for Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women. At this time she was retired from NPL and was a board member for the Women’s Project as well as a volunteer for the Heard AME Church, NJPAC and the Newark Museum.

In 2012, she received the Emma Fantone Distinguished Volunteer Service Award from the Newark Museum.