Ethel Bolden
Teacher and civil rights organizer
Ethel Bolden (1918-2002) graduated from Columbia, South Carolina’s Booker T. Washington High School in 1936. She served Richland District One public schools for 39 years. She understood the importance of library services to the African American community. She set up the first Black elementary school library at Waverly Elementary School in Columbia. Bolden also served her community through the South Carolina Library Association and South Carolina Education Association. Bolden was appointed as the librarian for Dreher High School in Columbia and helped to successfully integrate the school. Her son, Major General Charles Bolden, Jr., served in the Marines before becoming an astronaut. In 2009, he became the first African American head of NASA.
Image courtesy of The State Newspaper Photograph Archive, Richland Library