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The Minnesota Library Association refuses help to Michael

October 1970
Michael attended the 75th annual conference of the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) held in Rochester October 15-16. He was seeking peer review of the Regent's refusal to approve his job offer. Mitch Freeman, a managing librarian from the Hennepin County Library system, was eager to help. He introduced a resolution instructing the officers to collect "all information pertaining to Mr. McConnell's case" and to forward the results to the parent organization, the American Library Association (ALA).

"God works in strange and mysterious ways."

Robert DeYoung, president of the University's Library Staff Association, told The Dispatch that the resolution called for an investigation into the University's decision not to hire an admitted homosexual. The resolution was approved overwhelmingly after removing language that accused the Regents of a "flagrant act of discrimination in denying Mr. McConnell his civil rights." Gil Johnsson, MLA's president, interpreted the resolution differently. "I do not believe it was the intent of the MLA membership to plead Mr. McConnell's case," he said, "but rather to request a review." He emphasized that it was Michael's responsibility to file a "Request for Action" with the ALA.

MLA's officers refused to assist. Though Michael was a member of ALA and the Missouri Library Association, Johnsson characterized him as an outsider who lacked a "belief in the organization's ability to fairly consider problems, etc., faced by its membership."

MLA would extend Michael no professional courtesies because its president had effectively transformed a genuine concern of the membership into a meaningless exercise in futility. Michael began to suspect that librarians may not be a profession of professionals.

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