Honoring Montana’s first Black librarian

A LARGER-THAN-LIFE mural of Alma Smith Jacobs graces the salmon-colored brick walls of the Great Falls Public Library. The mural describes Jacobs as a “community leader” and “civil rights activist.” As head librarian in Great Falls, Montana, during the 1950s and 1960s, Jacobs persuaded the city to fund the construction of the city’s modern library—one of the few spaces where city residents of all ethnic backgrounds were welcome at the time. She also expanded rural communities’ access by circulating the county’s roving bookmobile outside the city. In 1973, Jacobs was named state librarian, a role she served in for eight years.

Now, there’s