{{Short description|American librarian}} {{Infobox person |name = Rice Estes |image = RiceEstes.png |caption = |birth_date = April 27, 1907 |birth_place = |death_date = {{death date and age|1996|3|17|1907|4|27}} |death_place = |other_names = |known_for = |occupation = librarian }} '''Rice Smith Estes''' (1907 - 1996) was an American librarian known for his activism against segregated public libraries in the United States.

==Early life and education== Estes was born and raised in South Carolina. His parents were Elliott Estes Jr. and Sadie Jane Calhoun.<ref name="SC">{{cite journal | last=Wiegand | first=Wayne A. | title="Any Ideas?": The American Library Association and the Desegregation of Public Libraries in the American South | journal=Libraries: Culture, History, and Society | volume=1 | issue=1 | date=2017-03-01 | issn=2473-0343 | doi=10.5325/libraries.1.1.0001 | pages=1–22 | url=https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/libraries/article/1/1/1/198732/Any-Ideas-The-American-Library-Association-and-the | access-date=2026-02-02| doi-access=free }}</ref> He graduated from the University of South Carolina and got a master's degree in English literature from the University of Southern California and a master's degree in library science from the Pratt Institute.<ref name="CT2">{{cite news |title=Rice Estes Appointed Fairfield Librarian |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/connecticut-post-rice-estes-undergrad/190425883/ |access-date=2 February 2026 |work=Connecticut Post |date=February 1, 1952 |page=21}}</ref> At the Pratt Institute he met and married Eleanor Estes (née Rosenfield) in 1932.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news |last1=Rierden |first1=Andi |title=New-Found Riches In Sharing a Home |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/05/nyregion/new-found-riches-in-sharing-a-home.html |access-date=2 February 2026 |work=New York Times |date=September 5, 1993}}</ref> They had one child, Helena, born in 1948, who became a librarian.<ref name="State">{{cite news |title=An Interview with Author Eleanor Estes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-state-estes-daughter/190426613/ |access-date=2 February 2026 |work=The State |date=January 24, 1965 |location=Columbia SC |page=55}}</ref><ref name="PP">{{cite news |title=Librarian |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh-press-helena-sileo-librar/190508692/ |access-date=3 February 2026 |work=Pittsburgh Press |date=April 7, 1991 |page=35}}</ref><ref name="WW">{{cite book |title=Who was who in America, with world notables |date=1989 |publisher=Marquis Who's Who |isbn=9780837902173 |page=12 |url=https://archive.org/details/whowaswhoinameri09peri/mode/2up |access-date=3 February 2026}}</ref>

==Career== After college, Estes got a job at Brooklyn College where he worked as a librarian while his wife wrote children's books, and he also taught library science at the Pratt Institute.<ref name="NEHS">{{cite | last=Landrigan | first=Leslie | title=Eleanor Estes Assuages Her Childhood Guilt | date=2014-07-15 | url=https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/eleanor-estes-assuages-childhood-guilt/ | language=en-us | access-date=2026-02-02 | page=}}</ref><ref name="nyt" /> In 1948 they moved to Los Angeles and Estes worked as assistant librarian at the University of Southern California. They moved back to New York in the 1950s. Estes got a position as head librarian at Fairfield Memorial Library in Connecticut in 1952 and worked there until becoming associate director of George Washington University Library in 1953.<ref name="CT3">{{cite news |title=Rice Estes to Direct University's Library |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/connecticut-post-rice-estes-gwu/190426278/ |access-date=2 February 2026 |work=Connecticut Post |date=August 14, 1953 |page=7}}</ref>

Estes later became the Head Librarian and Acting Dean of the Pratt Institute in 1955 until he retired from there in 1972.<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="CT">{{cite news |last1=Glenn |first1=Taylor |title=Books and Authors |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/connecticut-post-rice-estes-job/190425676/ |access-date=2 February 2026 |work=Connecticut Post |date=July 6, 1952 |page=34}}</ref><ref name="pratt">{{cite news |title=Rice Estes Returns; Becomes Acting Dean |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.35269326 |access-date=2 February 2026 |work=The Prattler |volume=17 |issue=1 |date=October 7, 1955}}</ref> Estes and his wife later moved to New Haven where Estes became an associate librarian at Albertus Magnus College.

==Library activism== In 1960, Eric Moon published Estes's article "Segregated Libraries" in Library Journal which started a debate about library associations' inaction regarding segregated public libraries in southern states in the United States.<ref name="SEL">{{cite journal |last1=Scott |first1=Susan Lee |title=Integration of Public Library Facilities in the South: Attitudes and Actions of the Library Profession |journal=The Southeastern Librarian |date=Fall 1968 |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=162-165 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_southeastern-librarian_fall-1968_18_3/page/164/mode/2up |access-date=2 February 2026}}</ref><ref name="MLA">{{cite journal | last=Lipscomb | first=Carolyn E | title=Race and librarianship: part II | journal=Journal of the Medical Library Association | volume=93 | issue=3 | pmid=16059419 | url=https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1175796/ | access-date=2026-02-02 | page=}}</ref> Rice wrote that the American Library Association "has been completely ineffective about the issue. It has never even passed a resolution on the subject. It has never commended the efforts of Negro readers and organizations who have tried to end library segregation by doing everything from making a mild request to staging library sit-ins. It has not attempted to bring a law suit or lent its name as amicus curiae to any group bringing a suit."<ref name="MLA" />

Rice and Moon together suggested remedies ALA could support, including advocating for withholding federal Library Services Act funds from libraries whose services were not available to all people.<ref name="MLA" /> According to a biography of Moon, "That article would put the issue of race front and center of the national library agenda, where it would remain until the stain of official segregation had been removed."<ref name="moon">{{cite book |last1=Kister |first1=Kenneth |title=Eric Moon : the life and library times |date=2002 |publisher=McFarland & Co. |isbn=0786412534 |page=151 |url=https://archive.org/details/ericmoonlifelibr0000kist/page/150/mode/2up |access-date=2 February 2026}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Estes, Rice}} Category:1907 births Category:1996 deaths Category:20th-century American librarians Category:Activists from South Carolina Category:Librarians from South Carolina