Barbara Clark Elam

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Barbara Aileen Clark Elam (February 10, 1929 – May 7, 2017) was a Boston-born librarian and community leader. She earned a master's degree from Simmons College in 1949, joined the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and worked as a librarian for the New York Public Library and the Boston Public Library, later leading the Boston Public Schools Library Program in Dorchester. She served as a voting library delegate from Massachusetts at the White House Conference on Library and Information Science. Through Freedom House, she promoted educational equity and opportunities for Black, Brown, and immigrant youth in Boston. As a mental health advocate, she was president of the Massachusetts Mental Health Association and helped push for the Solomon Carter Fuller Center. She also contributed to the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail and was named in 2023 as one of Boston’s most admired Black women leaders by Black Women Lead. Barbara was an active member of St. Mark Congregational Church, where she met her husband, Judge Harry J. Elam Sr., in 1950; they had a daughter.