Black and white photo, summarized in accompanying caption

"Two U.S. Navy sailors browsing library shelf labeled 'Negro Books'" – U.S. Navy Department, Office of Public Relations, ca. 1944-49.

To scrutinize the titles in this image, download a high resolution scan from the NYPL Digital Collections.

W. E. B. Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903) is clearly visible. Also: Charles S. Johnson, Patterns of Negro Segregation (1943) and Louis Adamic, The Native's Return (1934).

Repository: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library Digital Collections, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/22e61340-6379-013b-2df1-0242ac110003.

Follow-up remarks: Revisiting Image of Two Back Sailors Browsing Books (Sept. 7, 2024)

Related post: Reading about Black Librarians and Knowledge Formation (June 19, 2024)