Notable People: Rebecca T. Bingham

Rebecca T. Bingham oversaw Library Services for the old Louisville City Schools and for the merged Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS). She was appointed Supervisor of Library Services on February 21, 1966, making her the first Black woman to be a central office administrator in the Louisville City Public School System. Ms. Bingham was instrumental in bringing librarians to elementary schools in the Louisville and Jefferson County Districts. She ran the Library Media Services Program until her retirement in 1992.

Rebecca Bingham was born July 14, 1928 in Indianapolis. She received a bachelor’s degree in education from Indiana University in 1950, a master’s degree in education from the University of Tulsa in 1961, and a master’s in library science from Indiana University (IU) in 1969. While in college, she was active in numerous organizations, including the Association of Women Students, Delta Sigma Theta, the Student Supreme Court, and the NAACP.

Ms. Bingham started at the Louisville Public School District in 1962. She taught English, French, Spanish, and Library Use at Russell Junior High School and Jackson Junior High School (now Meyzeek Middle School). In addition to being a teacher, Ms. Bingham was appointed Librarian at Jackson in 1963. This all led to her being made head of Library Services in 1966. As director of Library Media Services, she led efforts to provide superior support to the libraries in the Louisville and Jefferson County districts. Ms. Bingham went to great lengths to promote the role of libraries in education and worked to keep the district’s libraries at a high standard of excellence. While at JCPS, she published in professional journals and co-authored a volume on cataloguing non-book materials. She directed the composition of materials that made their way into the JCPS curriculum. Ms. Bingham taught part-time at the college and university level and served the library community beyond JCPS, for example as a member of the President’s Advisory Committee for the White House Conference on Libraries and Information Services (1978-79). Over the years, she received numerous awards, including the Kentucky School Media Association’s Librarian of the Year (1971); the IU School of Library and Information Science’s first Distinguished Alumni Award (1977); the Demco/ALA Black Caucus Award for Excellence (1998); and the IU Alumni Association’s President’s Award (1999).

Ms. Bingham was involved in an impressive list of professional organizations over the course of her life. In 1971, she became the first Black president of the Kentucky Library Association. She was on the Boards of the Kentucky School Media Association (1979) and the Kentucky Library Network (1986-88). She served as president of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) (1979-80) and the Southeastern Library Association (1984-86). In 1979, she organized AASL’s first national conference, which was held in Louisville. In 1997, President Clinton appointed Ms. Bingham to the National Commission on Library and Information Science.

Rebecca Bingham was married to the Reverend Dr. Walter D. Bingham and they raised two children. Her hobbies included cooking, sewing, needlework and gardening. She passed away on March 24, 2023. Students and educators in Jefferson County should be deeply grateful for her efforts to provide high-quality libraries in the district’s schools and beyond.