Ella Gaines Yates is recognized in the library world as being the first African-American director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System in Georgia. Yates received her bachelors degree from Spelman College. She then received an MLS degree from Atlanta University in 1951, and went on to be a prominent member of African-American librarianship. Yates obtained this position in 1976 and served until 1981.

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  • Ella Gaines Yates is recognized in the library world as being the first African-American director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System in Georgia. Yates received her bachelors degree from Spelman College. She then received an MLS degree from Atlanta University in 1951, and went on to be a prominent member of African-American librarianship. Yates obtained this position in 1976 and served until 1981. Before joining the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library Yates worked as the assistant branch librarian at Brooklyn Public Library from 1951 to 1955, the head of the children’s department at Orange (New Jersey) Public Library, the branch librarian at East Orange (New Jersey) Public Library from 1960 to 1970, and as the assistant director of Montclair (New Jersey) Public Library from 1970 to 1972. Yates was a member of the American Library Association (ALA) and the Black Caucus of ALA. She was also a member of the NAACP and helped to found the Association’s Coretta Scott King Book Award. Yates obtained this position in 1976 and served until 1981. Yates returned as interim director in 1998, but because of disputes with the library board she left this position. Yates died on June 27, 2006 of Pancreatic Cancer at the age of 79. Under her leadership, the Atlanta-Fulton public library built its central branch on Margaret Mitchell Square in downtown Atlanta. Yates saw the state-of-the-art facility through its planning and construction stages and presided at the May 1980 dedication ceremonies. She was so concerned about the ciy receiving a fair deal that she found time to earn a doctoral degree from Atlanta Law School in 1979 so she could understand contracts. Yates cared about much more than an impressive building. She expanded library services for the disabled, ethnic groups, and prisoners. She brought the library into the Fulton County jail, making the jail the first penal institution in the country with a public library branch.
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  • Ella Gaines Yates is recognized in the library world as being the first African-American director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System in Georgia. Yates received her bachelors degree from Spelman College. She then received an MLS degree from Atlanta University in 1951, and went on to be a prominent member of African-American librarianship. Yates obtained this position in 1976 and served until 1981.
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  • Ella Gaines Yates
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