Library Guides: African American History: Document Collections

Document Collections

The library has acquired a number of collections containing works documenting the African American experience. Some of these collections are not fully described in The CAT and require the use of printed guides to determine what is available.

African American & Ethnic Newspapers
Research guide for finding newspaper resources.

African American Communities This link opens in a new window
A diverse range of primary source material focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, Brooklyn, and towns and cities in North Carolina. Includes pamphlets, periodicals, correspondence, official records and in-depth oral histories,
"From communal struggle to creative outpourings: uncover the everyday lives of African Americans spanning two turbulent centuries. A diverse range of primary source material is showcased in this collection that focuses on race relations across social, political, cultural and religious arenas. Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, Brooklyn, and towns and cities in North Carolina this collection presents multiple aspects of the African American community. Through pamphlets, periodicals, correspondence, official records and in-depth oral histories, it reveals the challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and the expressions of a unique African American culture and identity."

African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907
Pamphlets by African-American authors with the bulk of the material published between 1875 and 1900.
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The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, which may contain materials offensive to some readers

African American Poetry (Legacy) This link opens in a new window
Thousands of poems written by African-American poets between 1750-1900.
A database of modern and contemporary African American poetry, featuring thousands of poems by some of the most important African American poets between 1750 and 1900.
Afro-Americana Imprints (1535-1922) This link opens in a new window
Spans nearly 400 years, from the early 16th to the early 20th century.
Contains more than 12,000 printed works; books, pamphlets and broadsides from the Library Company’s Afro-Americana Collection.

American Colonization Society, Records in the Library of Congress
Correspondence, reports, and financial and business papers of the American Colonization Society. While spanning the period 1792 to 1964, the majority of the society's records date from the years 1823 to 1912
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938
From 1936 to 1938, over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were interviewed by writers and journalists under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration. These former slaves, most born in the last years of the slave regime or during the Civil War, provided first-hand accounts of their experiences on plantations, in cities, and on small farms.

Anti-slavery propaganda in the Oberlin College Library
Guide Available: Z1249.S6A5

Black Abolitionists Archive [University of Detroit Mercy]
A collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials.
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From the 1820s to the Civil War, African Americans assumed prominent roles in the transatlantic struggle to abolish slavery. In contrast to the popular belief that the abolitionist crusade was driven by wealthy whites, some 300 black abolitionists were regularly involved in the antislavery movement, heightening its credibility and broadening its agenda. The Black Abolitionist Digital Archive is a collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials from the period. These important documents provide a portrait of black involvement in the anti-slavery movement; scans of these documents are provided as images and PDF files.
Black Abolitionist Papers 1830-1865.
Letters, speeches, editorials, articles, sermons, and essays from the abolitionist movement in the U.S. England, Scotland, Ireland and Canada, Over 15,000 items written by nearly 300 Black men and women.
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This collection searches a unique set of primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865. Over 15,000 items are available for searching.

Black Drama This link opens in a new window
Contains plays together with detailed information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
Includes full texts of plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 100 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. The plays are fully searchable and extensively indexed.
Black Liberation Army and the Program of Armed Struggle This link opens in a new window
Operating from 1970-1981, The Black Liberation Army's stated goal was to “take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States.” Sources include FBI surveillance and informant reports, Justice Department memoranda, newsclippings and articles; and more.
The Black Liberation Army (BLA) was an underground, black nationalist-Marxist militant organization that operated from 1970 to 1981. Composed largely of former Black Panthers (BPP), the organization's program was one of “armed struggle” and its stated goal was to “take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States.”Sourced from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Library, Black Liberation Army and the Program of Armed Struggle consists of a wide range of materials, including FBI surveillance and informant reports and correspondence from a variety of offices including, New York City, Baltimore, New Haven, San Francisco, Detroit, Miami, Atlanta, Newark, Kansas City, and Cleveland; intercepted correspondence; Justice Department memoranda, correspondence and analyses; newsclippings and articles; and more.
Black Nationalism and the Revolutionary Action Movement: The Papers of Muhammad Ahmad (Max Stanford) This link opens in a new window
Writings and statements of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) and its leaders.
This collection of RAM records reproduces the writings and statements of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) and its leaders. It also covers organizations that evolved from or were influenced by RAM and persons that had close ties to RAM. The most prominent organization that evolved from RAM was the African People’s Party. Organizations influenced by RAM include the Black Panther Party, League of Revolutionary Black Workers, Youth Organization for Black Unity, African Liberation Support Committee, and the Republic of New Africa. Individuals associated with RAM and documented in this collection include Robert F. Williams, Malcolm X, Amiri Baraka, General Gordon Baker Jr., Yuri Kochiyama, Donald Freeman, James and Grace Lee Boggs, Herman Ferguson, Askia Muhammad Toure (Rolland Snellings), and Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael).
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
Over 100,000 pages of non-fiction writing, including letters, speeches, interviews and periodicals.
"Black Thought and Culture is a landmark electronic collection of approximately 100,000 pages of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders—teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures—covering 250 years of history. In addition to the most familiar works, Black Thought and Culture presents a great deal of previously inaccessible material, including letters, speeches, prefatory essays, political leaflets, interviews, periodicals, and trial transcripts. The ideas of over 1,000 authors present an evolving and complex view of what it is to be black in America."
Black Women Writers This link opens in a new window
100,000 pages of literature and essays on feminist issues, written by authors from Africa and the African diaspora
"Black Women Writers presents 100,000 pages of literature and essays on feminist issues, written by authors from Africa and the African diaspora. Facing both sexism and racism, black women needed to create their own identities and movements. The collection documents that effort, presenting the woman’s perspective on the diversity and development of black people generally, and in particular the works document the evolution of black feminism."

Charles L. Blockson Collection of African-Americana and the African Diaspora
Contains materials relating to African American, African, Latin American, and Caribbean history and culture. The Blockson Collection focuses not only on African-Americana, but more broadly documents the African Diaspora, the pattern of human migration that traces the movement of Blacks from their African homelands to areas around the world.
Colored Conventions Project
A cornerstone of Black organizing in the nineteenth century, the “Colored Conventions” brought Black men and women together in a decades-long campaign for civil and human rights. This is a re flagship project of the Center for Black Digital Research, #DigBlk, at Penn State University.

The Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1941-1967 (microfilm)

Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activist, Political Activist, and Woman This link opens in a new window
Fannie Lou Hamer was a voting rights activist and civil rights leader. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
Fannie Lou Hamer was an voting rights activist and civil rights leader. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, attending the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in that capacity. Her plain-spoken manner and fervent belief in the Biblical righteousness of her cause gained her a reputation as an electrifying speaker and constant activist of civil rights.
Greensboro Massacre, 1979: Shootout between the American Nazis and the Communist Workers Party This link opens in a new window
Documents the November 3, 1979 rally and march of black industrial workers and Communists against the Ku Klux Klan in Greensboro, North Carolina. Five protest marchers were killed. Includes records from the FBI, local and state police, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.
On November 3, 1979 a rally and march of black industrial workers and Communists was planned in Greensboro, North Carolina against the Ku Klux Klan. The "Death to the Klan March" was to begin in a predominantly black housing project called Morningside Homes. Communist organizers publicly challenged the Klan to present themselves and "face the wrath of the people". During the rally, a caravan of cars containing Klansmen and members of the American Nazi Party drove by the housing projects where the Communists and other anti-Klan activists were congregating. What then occurred is in dispute, from rock-throwing and taunts on both sides to the sound of gunfire and deaths of five protest marchers. This collection of FBI, local and state police, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, shed new light on the motivations of the Communist organizers, the shootings, subsequent investigations, and efforts to heal the Greensboro community.
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 This link opens in a new window
Documents related to FBI investigations of prominent African-American activists as well as civil rights organizations.
Digital collection of documents related to FBI investigations of those deemed politically suspect. This collection includes FBI files relating to: A. Philip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell, the Atlanta Child Murders (ATKID), the Black Panther Party, North Carolina, COINTELPRO: Black Nationalist "Hate" Groups, the Committee for Public Justice, Elijah Muhammed, the Highlander Folk School, the Klu Klux Klan Murder of Viola Liuzzo, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, MIBURN (Mississippi Burning), Muslim Mosque, Inc., the NAACP, the National Negro Congress, the Organization of Afro-American Unity, Paul Robeson, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Roy Wilkins, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Thurgood Marshall, W.E.B. Du Bois
History Vault This link opens in a new window
Includes the following modules relating to African-American History:
Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Stuggle: Features records of NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, CORE, and federal records on the black freedom struggle
Southern Life and Slavery: Petitions concerning race and slavery and Southern Plantation records
Primary source documents including records from civil rights activists and organizations (Southern Christian Leadership Council, NAACP, Revolutionary Action Movement). Other collections include; Law and Society Since the Civil War; Slavery and the Law (petitions to southern legislatures and courts and slavery statutes); Southern Life and African-American History, 1775-1915 (diaries, account books and other records of daily life); The Struggle for Women's Rights, 1880-1990 (records of the National Woman's Party, the League of Women Voters, and the Women's Action Alliance); Women's Studies Manuscript Collections from The Schlesinger Library; The Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975, and Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1880-1930.

Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists
Multi-layered compilation of documents, sound recordings, and visual images documenting the activities of the Montgomery Improvement Association, photographs and surveillance tapes of sit-ins, the Selma March, the Poor People's Campaign, oral histories of the white activists, and films of African-American activists.

Papers of the NAACP
Records of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Many series and supplements.
History Vault contains some NAACP papers
Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery
Guide available: BX7642.P4P2 1976
Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations
Selected records are in History Vault.
Plantation Records were both business records and personal papers because the plantation was both the business and the home for plantation owners. Business records include ledger books, payroll books, work rules and receipts. Personal papers include family correspondence between friends and relatives, diaries, and wills.

Papers of Amiri Baraka, Poet Laureate of the Black Power Movement This link opens in a new window
Rare works of poetry, organizational records, print publications, over one hundred articles, poems, plays, and speeches by Baraka, a small amount of personal correspondence, and oral histories.
This collection of Amiri Baraka materials was made available by Dr. Komozi Woodard. Dr. Woodard collected these documents during his career as an activist in Newark, New Jersey. The collection consists of rare works of poetry, organizational records, print publications, over one hundred articles, poems, plays, and speeches by Baraka, a small amount of personal correspondence, and oral histories. The collection has been arranged into eighteen series. These series are: Black Arts Movement; Black Nationalism; Correspondence; Newark (New Jersey); Congress of African People; National Black Conferences and National Black Assembly; Black Women’s United Front; Student Organization for Black Unity; African Liberation Support Committee; Revolutionary Communist League; African Socialism; Black Marxists; National Black United Front; Miscellaneous Materials, 1978-1988; Serial Publications; Oral Histories; Woodard’s Office Files.
Race Relations in America: Surveys and Papers from The Amistad Research Center, 1943-1970 This link opens in a new window
Speeches, reports, surveys, and analyses produced by the Race Relations Department at Fisk University from 1943-1970.
Based at Fisk University from 1943-1970, the Race Relations Department and its annual Institute were set up by the American Missionary Association to investigate problem areas in race relations and develop methods for educating communities and preventing conflict. Documenting three pivotal decades in the fight for civil rights, this resource showcases the speeches, reports, surveys and analyses produced by the Department’s staff and Institute participants, including Charles S. Johnson, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall.

Slave Narratives Beginnings to 1920
"North American Slave Narratives" collects books and articles that document the individual and collective story of African Americans struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.

Slavery and Anti-Slavery: A Transnational Archive This link opens in a new window
Massive collection of pamphlets, books, newspapers as well as unpublished archival material produced by pro and anti-slavery organizations and individuals from the 1700s to the early 20th century.
A massive digital collection of 18th and 19th century documents; Pamphlets, Books, Correspondence, Newspapers, Legal Documents, Manuscripts, and other materials. Includes over 1 million pages of unpublished archival material produced by pro and anti-slavery organizations and individuals.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice, 1490-2007 This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents from archives and libraries across the Atlantic world
Bringing together primary source documents from archives and libraries across the Atlantic world, this resource allows students and researchers to explore and compare unique material relating to the complex subjects of slavery, abolition and social justice. In addition to the primary source documents there is a wealth of useful secondary sources for research and teaching; including an interactive map, scholarly essays, tutorials, a visual sources gallery, chronology and bibliography.
Twentieth - Century African American Poetry This link opens in a new window
The collection opens the door to literary scholarship by providing access to the full text of thousands of works.
A database of modern and contemporary African American poetry, featuring almost 9,000 poems by 62 of the most important African American poets of the last century, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Imamu Amiri Baraka, Audre Lorde and Rita Dove.

United States. Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands
from Lionsearch

Penn State University Libraries

African American History

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Document Collections