Charlemae Hill Rollins (June 20, 1897 – February 3, 1979)[1] was a pioneering librarian, writer, and storyteller in the area of African American literature.

Her family moved to Beggs in Oklahoma Territory hoping to find better living conditions, but discovered that black children were excluded from attending school.

[2] After completing her elementary education, Rollins attended black high schools in St. Louis, Missouri, Holly Springs, Mississippi, and Quindoro, Kansas, where she graduated in 1916.

Black writers who visited the library included Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Walker, and Langston Hughes, with whom Rollins developed a friendship.

In addition to these contributions to librarianship, Rollins taught at Morgan College in Baltimore and summers at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Much of the literature available to young children in the earlier half of the twentieth century was rife with stereotypical portrayals of blacks, including false dialects, illustrations, and offensive words.

Her first publication in 1941, We Build Together: A Reader's Guide to Negro Life and Literature for Elementary and High School Use, is a bibliography of books suitable for young African American children that sought to eliminate negative black stereotypes.

Biographies, nonfiction, and sports genres are represented alongside picture and fiction books for children and young adults.

Her passion for storytelling is reflected in the variety of excerpts from Paul Laurence Dunbar, Booker T. Washington, and Gwendolyn Brooks.

They will be prepared for the first introduction to the concept of different skin color…They now can feel that America is indeed their country.”[9] Rollins served as president of the Children's Services Division of the American Library Association from 1957 to 1958.

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.