Betty Jean Johnson
Betty Jean Johnson is a voracious reader who loves traveling to faraway places through books.
Her teacher Prevell Barber stoked an appreciation for the written word. “I always had to read something in her class or around her. The fact of it is when I read I could travel. We didn’t have TV until later on.” Johnson thought her college education would lead to a career in social work.
Instead, a high school class in “library procedures” changed her trajectory after graduating from Gibbs Junior College in St. Petersburg. Back then, Manatee Community College, now known as State College of Florida was off limits to African Americans. Mary Emma Jones, a well-respected entrepreneur and community leader orchestrated the hiring of Mary Thomas at the Sarasota Public Library.
Thomas helped Johnson land a job there. The facility was not a welcoming place for African American patrons. Johnson understood what Newtown residents encountered. “For a book report, I had to go to that library for a book because we didn’t have it at the Booker library. There were ‘closed stacks’ closed to Blacks. The lady at the desk had to go to the stacks to get the book. When I started working there, those same people were there.” For years, a perplexing question dogged Johnson. “What can I do to get more Blacks to use the library?” A solution to the conundrum came while preparing to work a split shift. She would ask the boss for use of an old book mobile the library was about to replace with a new one. The idea was nixed but administrators provided an outreach van that made books accessible to African American children.
From a van to a storefront library operating on a shoestring budget, Johnson and supporters kept pushing, even though for years their efforts seemed fruitless. Finally, the North Sarasota Public Library opened as a result of the seed of an idea that Johnson planted.
