The Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) is an affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA) that focuses on the needs of African-American library professionals by promoting careers in librarianship, funding literacy initiatives, and providing scholarships.
History While work began to organize a Black Caucus of the American Library Association in 1968, this work increased in 1969 when E. J. Josey was appointed to the American Library Association Nominating Committee.Echavarria, Tami, and Andrew B. Wertheimer (1997). "Surveying the Role of Ethnic-American Library Associations", Library Trends 46, no. 2, p. 374. For the 1970 Midwinter meeting, black librarians were encouraged to find socially responsible candidates, African American and Caucasian American, for the 1971 council. During the 1970 Midwinter meeting, a Black Caucus was formed to meet the unmet needs of the African American library professionals with Josey as the chairman.
The Black Caucus was not officially affiliated with the ALA until 1992; the first National Conference of African American Librarians (NCAAL) was also held in 1992.
As an advocacy and solidarity organization, BCALA campaigned to save the library studies program at Clark Atlanta University, a historically black university that had educated the majority of African-American librarians until its closing.Chepesiuk, Ron. "Requiem for a Library School? High Noon at Clark Atlanta University," American Libraries 35 no. 11 (2004), p. 32-33.Sutton, Allison M. (2005)."Bridging the Gap in Early Library Education History for African Americans: The Negro Teacher-Librarian Training Program (1936–1939)", The Journal of Negro Education 74, no. 2, p. 139. Following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the BCALA Haitian Relief Fund was created to support relief efforts through the Save the Children Fund and the American Red Cross.P.A.G. (2010), "Global Outreach Underway to Aid Haiti Libraries and Archives". American Libraries 41, no. 3, p. 22. In 2015, BCALA planted a tree in Ferguson, Missouri, in honor of Michael Brown.
In 2006, BCALA took part in the first Joint Conference of Librarians of Color, along with the American Indian Library Association, the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, the Chinese American Librarians Association, and REFORMA. This conference was the first national conference sponsored and held by those organizations, which are known as the Associations of Ethnic Librarians.
The Joint Council of Librarians of Color (JCLC, Inc.) was founded in June 2015 as an organization “that advocates for and addresses the common needs of the American Library Association ethnic affiliates“; these ethnic affiliates include BCALA, as well as the American Indian Library Association, the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, the Chinese American Librarians Association, and REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking.
Goals Mission Statement (revised 1995)
BCALA Mission: The Black Caucus of the American Library Association serves as an advocate for the development, promotion, and improvement of library services and resources to the nation's African-American community; and provides leadership for the recruitment and professional development of African-American librarians.
Membership Fees/levels are: Student $10 Library Support Staff $20 Retired $25 Regular $45 Institutional/Institutions $60 Corporate $200 Lifetime $500
Awards The BCALA offers awards for books, e-books, innovative leaders (referred to as trailblazers), and a scholarship in honor of E. J. Josey.
The BCALA Literary Book Awards were first presented at the Second National Conference of African American Librarians in 1994. Awards are given for four categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry Collection, and First Novel. The initial First Novel Award went to Alexs Pate, for the novel Losing Absalom."Front Matter," The Black Scholar 24 no. 3 (1994). Some of the recent book awards have been for The Twelve Tribes of Hattie and If One of Us Should Fall. The SELF-e literary award, recognizing self-published poetry and fiction, was created in 2015 by BCALA in partnership with BiblioBoard, becoming the first ebook award sponsored by an organization affiliated with the American Library Association.
In 2021 the BCALA launched the Children & Young Adult Literary Awards to honor outstanding books that celebrate the diversity of the Black experience, offering young readers essential windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors to see themselves and their communities reflected in literature.
The Black Books Galore! contest was sponsored by BCALA to public and school library programs that support increased awareness of African-American children's literature through public programming.McClellan, Sally, and M. Evelyn Fields (2004). "Using African American Children's Literature to Support Literacy Development", YC Young Children 59, no. 3, p. 52.
Adult Literary Awards + List of BCALA Literary Award winners — Adult Literary Awards Year Award Title Recipient Result 2026 1st Novelist Award Dominion: A Novel Best Poetry Award The Lost Songs of Nina Simone Fiction Minor Black Figures: A Novel Nonfiction Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer's Legendary Editorship 2025 1st Novelist Award All We Were Promised Best Poetry Award Magic Enuff Fiction James: A Novel Nonfiction Medgar & Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America 2024 1st Novelist Award Moonrise Over New Jessup: A Novel Best Poetry Award Above Ground: Poems Clint Smith Fiction All the Sinners Bleed Nonfiction Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Michael Harriot 2023 Fiction Take My Hand First Novel Black Cake Nonfiction The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History Brian Jones Poetry A Peculiar People Steven Willis 2022 1st Novelist The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois Honorée Fanonne Jeffers Fiction Razorblade Tears Nonfiction Just As I Am: A Memoir Cicely Tyson Poetry Black Girl, Call Home 2021 Fiction The Vanishing Half Brit Bennett First Novel Everywhere You Don't Belong Gabriel Bump First Novel Fifty Words for Rain Asha Lemmie Nonfiction Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. Poetry African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song Kevin Young 2020 Fiction The Nickel Boys Colson Whitehead First Novel The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates Nonfiction Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem: A Memoir Daniel R. Day Poetry 1919 Eve L. Ewing 2019 Fiction An American Marriage Tayari Jones First Novel They Come in All Colors: A Novel Malcolm Hansen Nonfiction Becoming Michelle Obama Nonfiction The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke Jeffrey C. Stewart 2018 Fiction Difficult Women Nonfiction Chester B. Himes: A Biography Lawrence P. Jackson Poetry Incendiary Art: Poems Patricia Smith 2017 Fiction Another Brooklyn Jacqueline Woodson First Novel Grace Natashia Deón Nonfiction Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race Margot Lee Shetterly Poetry Counting Descent Clint Smith 2016 Fiction God Help the Child Toni Morrison First Novel The Turner House Nonfiction Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga Pamela Newkirk Poetry Wild Hundreds (Pitt Poetry Series) Nate Marshall 2015 Fiction Citizens Creek: A Novel Lalita Tademy First Novel Forty Acres: A Thriller Nonfiction Visible Man: The Life of Henry Dumas Poetry Book of Hours: Poems Kevin Young 2014 Fiction The Good Lord Bird First Novel The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat Edward Kelsey Moore Nonfiction Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities Craig Steven Wilder Poetry Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid Nikki Giovanni 2013 Fiction Freeman Leonard Pitts Jr. First Novel The Twelve Tribes of Hattie Ayana Mathis Nonfiction Benjamin Elijah Mays, Schoolmaster of the Movement: A Biography Randal Maurice Jelks Poetry Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place 2012 Nonfiction The Indignant Generation: A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics, 1934-1960 Lawrence P. Jackson Poetry Mule & Pear (New Issues Poetry & Prose) Rachel Eliza Griffiths 2011 Fiction Glorious Bernice L. McFadden First Novel Wench Dolen Perkins-Valdez Nonfiction The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates Wes Moore 2010 Fiction Buying Time Pamela Samuels Young First Novel My Sister's Veil K.C. Marshall Nonfiction The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama Gwen Ifill 2009 Fiction Trading Dreams at Midnight First Novel Orange Mint and Honey Carleen Brice Nonfiction Ida: A Sword Among Lions Paula J. Giddings 2008 Fiction New England White Stephen L. Carter First Novel The Rise: Where Neighbors Are Sometimes More Chantal Ellen Nonfiction Ralph Ellison: A Biography Arnold Rampersad 2007 Fiction After Marita Golden Nonfiction The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream Barack Obama Nonfiction Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present Harriet A. Washington 2006 Fiction Third Girl from the Left Martha Southgate First Novel Freshwater Road Denise Nicholas Nonfiction Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas Michael A. Gomez 2005 Fiction Leaving Cecil Street Diane McKinney-Whetstone First Novel The Darkest Child Delores Phillips Nonfiction A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa Howard W. French 2004 Fiction Hottentot Venus Barbara Chase-Riboud First Novel The Known World Edward P. Jones Nonfiction In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. Wil Haygood 2003 Fiction Douglass' Women: A Novel Jewell Parker Rhodes First Novel The Emperor of Ocean Park Stephen L. Carter Nonfiction Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies Elizabeth McHenry 2002 Fiction I Wish I Had a Red Dress Pearl Cleage First Novel Gabriel's Story David Anthony Durham Nonfiction Vernon Can Read! A Memoir Vernon E. Jordan 2001 Fiction The Fisher King: A Novel Paule Marshall First Novel Where I'm Bound: A Novel Allen B. Ballard Nonfiction Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation Larry Eugene Rivers 2000 Fiction Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do Valerie W. Wesley First Novel Inner City Blues Paula L. Woods Nonfiction Homelands and Waterways: The American Journey of the Bond Family, 1846-1926 1999 Fiction The Healing Gayl Jones Nonfiction Spirits of the Cloth: Contemporary African American Quilts Carolyn Mazloomi 1998 Fiction The River Where Blood Is Born Sandra Jackson-Opoku First Novel The View From Here Brian Keith Jackson Nonfiction An Original Man: The Life and Times of Elijah Muhammad Claude Andrew Clegg Nonfiction The Black Notebooks: An Interior Journey Toi Derricotte 1997 Fiction Sarah's Psalm Florence Ladd First Novel Push Sapphire Nonfiction Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol Nell Irvin Painter 1996 Fiction RL's Dream Walter Mosley First Novel An Open Weave Devorah Major Nonfiction Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America Herb Boyd 1995 Fiction Rattlebone Fiction I Hear a Symphony: African Americans Celebrate Love First Novel Serpent's Gift Helen Elaine Lee Nonfiction I've Known Rivers: Lives of Loss and Liberation 1994 Fiction A Lesson Before Dying First Novel Losing Absalom Nonfiction W. E. B. Du Bois, 1868-1919: Biography of a Race
Children & Youth Literary Awards