Image Ownership: Public Domain Librarian Alma Smith Jacobs was
the first African American to serve as the Montana State
Librarian. She was a lifelong advocate of free access to library
resources and was active in local and state civil rights causes.
Alma Victoria Smith Jacobs was born in Lewistown, Montana on
November 21, 1916. She was one of five children born to Martin
Luther Smith, a cook for the Great Northern Railroad, and Emma
Louise Riley Smith, a prolific quilter whose work is registered
with the Montana Historic Quilt Project. When she was six, her
family moved to Great Falls, Montana. After high school, she
received a scholarship to Talladega College in Alabama and
graduated from there with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a
minor in psychology in 1938. While Alma Smith Jacobs aspired to
become a social worker, she was offered a job as a clerical
assistant in the Talladega College library. She remained there
for eight years as assistant librarian. During that time she
received a scholarship to C