Ruby Chappelle Boyd

Ruby Chappelle was born March 18, 1919, in Philadelphia.[1] Her parents, Bersie and Pearl Chappelle, had moved to Philadelphia from South Carolina during the Great Migration.[2] After growing up in Philadelphia, Boyd sought work as a librarian and applied to attend Drexel Institute, but was denied admittance due to her race.[1][3]

Boyd is a graduate of Wilberforce University and attended Atlanta University Library School, earning her Bachelor in Library Science and Service degree in 1943.[3] While she was attending school in Atlanta, Philadelphia elementary school principal John Henry Brodhead fought a battle against discrimination in the city's government, and in 1943 the Free Library of Philadelphia advertised to hire their first African American librarian.[1] Upon Boyd's return to Philadelphia she applied for the position and was appointed the city's first black librarian.[1] She later became the first black librarian in the School District of Philadelphia.[1]

In 1966, as president of the School Librarians Association of Philadelphia, she led the organization of the School Library Student Assistants Conference.[4]

Boyd's maternal grandfather was an A.M.E. Church preacher and her mother served as superintendent of the Sunday school at Mother Bethel, the birthplace of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; Boyd was a lifelong member of that church.[2][1] After her retirement from the Philadelphia school district, she dedicated her work to preserving the history of Mother Bethel, developing the Church's museum.[1]

In 1982, Boyd edited a book about the Mother Bethel Church titled On this rock : the mother of African Methodism.[5]