Clara Stanton Jones became the 1st African-American to serve as president of the American Library Association (ALA) in 1976. She served as ALA president for one term, until 1977. While ALA President, Jones oversaw the adoption of the ALA policy statement on Equal Employment Opportunity. In 1978, she retired as head of the Detroit Public Library in Detroit, Michigan. In 2004, when she was 89, Jones was interviewed by Carla Hayden, the current president of ALA. Jones credits E.J. Josey as providing support critical to her election.

Sources:

"Clara Jones gets honorary degree" Library Journal, 5/1/78, Vol. 103 Issue 9, p922.

"PROFILE," American Libraries, Sep. 1976, Vol. 7 Issue 8, p511.

Untold Stories: Civil Liberties, Libraries, and Black Librarianship. Ed. John Mark Tucker. (Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 1998)

E.J. Josey, "Race Issues in Library History," in Wayne A. Wiegand and Donald G. Davis, eds., Encyclopedia of Library History (New York: Garland, 1994), p. 534.

Hayden's interview with Jones -

http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governanceb/executiveboard/hayden/ALcolumnFeb04.pdf

http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governingdocs/aheadto2010/aaeo.htm