Charlemae Hill Rollins - Honors and Awards

Honors and Awards

Rollins received an honorary life membership in the ALA in 1972, the first African-American to do so. On October 21, 1989, the children’s room at the Hall Branch Library was named in Rollins’ honor. The Charlemae Hill Rollins Colloquium is held twice a year at North Carolina Central University, where attendees discuss how to improve library services for children.

Rollins was also honored by Columbia College in 1974 with a doctorate of humane letters. Despite Rollins’ long career promoting education, this was the first degree she had ever received: “But you can still touch me even now—it’s the only degree I’ve ever had.”

Additionally, she received:

• American Brotherhood Award, National Conference of Christians and Jews, 1952
• American Library Association Letter, 1953
• Grolier Society Award, 1955
• Woman of the Year, Zeta Phi Beta, 1956
• Honorary membership in Phi Delta Kappa, 1959
• Good American Award of the Chicago Committee of One-hundred, 1962
• Three (3) Negro Centennial Awards, 1963
• Children's Reading Round Table Award, 1963
• Constance Lindsay Skinner Award, National Book Association, 1970
• The Coretta Scott King Award in 1971 for her biography Black Troubadour: Langston Hughes
• Torchbearers Award of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, 1972
• Plaque from the Black Librarians’ Caucus, 1976