Printed guides to accompany microfilm sets are located in Microform Services on A-floor in Firestone Library.
African American Culture and History: The L.S. Alexander Gumby Collection of Negroiana from the Holdings of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University in the City of New York
ReCap Microfilm 12135 Online guide 21 reels
Materials consist of newspaper clippings, periodical extracts, photos, pamphlets, playbills, letters, manuscripts, and materials Gumby gathered personally from subjects such as Josephine Baker, Joe Louis, Paul Robeson, and many other political, cultural and sports figures. Also includes individual scrapbooks on noted people, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Ralph Bunche, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Jackie Robinson, Booker T. Washington.
American Missionary Association Archives, 1839-1882. Amistad Research Center Microfilm Edition
ReCap Microfilm 05360 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) Z7817.A45 261 reels
The American Missionary Association (AMA) was established in 1846 as an interdenominational missionary society devoted to abolitionist principles. The Association grew directly from the committee organized in 1839 to defend the Africans who had revolted and seized the schooner La Amistad. The papers provide the detailed history of the AMA from its origin to 1882.
American Negro Historical Society Collection, 1790-1905
ReCap Microfilm 11981 Online guide (FilmB) E185.93.P41 A5 1998 12 reels
Reproduces a variety of materials that illustrate the black experience in the 19th and 20th centuries, chiefly in Philadelphia.
Black Abolitionist Papers, 1830-1865
ReCap Microfilm 05367 Printed guide (FilmB) E449.B625 1981 17 reels
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.
Black Academy of Arts and Letters Records, 1968-1980
ReCap Microfilm 11829 Online guide Printed guide: none 10 reels
Files of the Board of Directors containing correspondence, agendas, minutes, and records of three board committees. Administrative records including material on the founding of the Academy, nominations for awards, and records relating to daily operations, including correspondence, memoranda, financial papers, and mailing list. Annual meeting files which encompass planning and programming for annual meetings, 1970-1972, and related correspondence, programs, transcripts of meetings, and financial records.
Black and Third World Periodicals. Sample Issues, 1844-1963, from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
ReCap Microfilm 11984 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) E185.5.S35 1995 8 reels
This collection includes samples issues of black periodicals published in the United
States, West Indies, and Africa, as well as other publications dealing primarily with Africa or peoples of African descent wherever they reside. The periodicals are arranged alphabetically by title.
Black Workers in the Era of the Great Migration, 1916-1925
ReCap Microfilm 05597 Online guide Printed guide: none 25 reels
“Records relate to agricultural labor, industrial work, unionism, housing, race relations, returning veterans and their search for employment, and the process of migration from the South to the North.”
Blacks in the Railroad Industry Collection, 1946-1954
ReCap Microfilm 11640 Online guide 1 reel
The Blacks in the Railroad Industry Collection (1946–1954) is a compilation of a variety of materials documenting the struggle of black railroad employees against ouster from the industry by the collusive actions of the companies and the unions.
Butler Plantation Papers: The Papers of Pierce Butler, 1744-1822, and Successors from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
ReCap Microfilm 10622 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) F290.B96 B874 22 reels
This collection documents both the day-to-day running of the Butler plantations in South Carolina and Georgia from 1786 to 1885, and the political career of Pierce Butler, who served in Congress in 1792-94 and 1802-04.
California. Governor’s Commission on the Los Angeles Riots. Transcripts, Depositions, Consultants Reports, and Selected Documents
ReCap Microfilm 1109.412.23 Printed guide: none 18 reels
Civil Rights and Social Activism in the South, Series 1-3
ReCap Microfilm 12030 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.6.C585 2007 104 reels
Online guide to Series 1, Parts 1-2 Online guide to Series 2
Series 1, Civil rights and social activism in Alabama. Part 1, The John L. LeFlore papers, 1926-1976 (15 reels); Part 2: Records of the Non-Partisan Voters League, 1956-1987 (29 reels) -- Series 2, The Legal Battle for Civil Rights in Alabama. Part 1, Vernon Z. Crawford reords, 1958-1978 (6 reels); Part 2: Selctions from the Blacksher, Menefee & Stein records (37 reels) -- Series 3: James A. Dombrowski and the Southern Conference Educational Fund (17 reels).
COINTELPRO: the Counterintelligence Program of the FBI
ReCap Microfilm 05649 Printed guide: none 30 reels
Communist Party of the USA--Hoodwink (reels 1-17)--New left, Socialists Workers Party (reels 18-21)--Black nationalist hate groups(reels 22-25)--Special operations file,Espionage file (reel 26)--Nationalist groups (reel 27)--White hate groups (reels 28-30)
Commission on Interracial Cooperation Papers, 1919-1944
ReCap Microfilm 05550 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.C655 55 reels
The papers of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC), which was formed in 1919 in response to these civil disturbances, are now available in this microfilm collection. The CIC formed as a moderate coalition of whites and blacks, who recognized that promoting nonviolent change within the archaic Southern societal structure would in the long run better serve the cause of racial harmony. The CIC was to become the Southern Regional Council in 1944.
Communist infiltration of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and J. Edgar Hoover’s Official Confidential File on Martin Luther King, Jr.
ReCap Microfilm 05440 Printed guide: none 9 reels
Congress of Racial Equality, 1941-1967: Papers
ReCap Microfilm 04276 Printed guide (FilmB) Z1361.N39M46 1980 49 reels
“Strategies, tactics and ideologies of CORE are documented in these papers. Internal records, reports, project files, correspondence, convention notes, newsletters and other information related to civil rights organizations are included.”
Congress of Racial Equality, 1944-1968: Addendum
ReCap Microfilm 04562 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.P36 25 reels
“This collection offers materials recently released for micro-publication which were unavailable at the time of the 1980 program entitled The Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1959-1976. The Addendum spans the years 1944-1968, with the largest portion of materials dealing with the 1961 to 1968 period when CORE adopted a more militant strategy in response to the Black Power movement. The collection was filmed from the holdings of the Library and Archives of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia.”
Correspondence of the Military Intelligence Division relating to “Negro Subversion,” 1917-1941
ReCap Microfilm 09662 Printed guide: none 6 reels
“The documents reproduced are primarily from World War I and the immediate postwar years and consist of War Department memorandums, investigative reports, and correspondence with other agencies, particularly the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Investigation, predecessor of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and cover the activities of blacks in both civilian and military life.”
Daniel Murray papers (1881-1955)-1966
MICROFILM 09021 Printed guide (FilmB) Z1361.N39 W76 27 reels
Microfilmed by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Division of Archives & Manuscripts
Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection: Pamphlets on African American History
Microfilm 08889 Reel 1 contains guide. 10 reels
Contains 357 pamphlets, published between 1821 and 1910, from the Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection at the Library of Congress. Also of interest from the Library of Congress is the Daniel A. P. Murray Pamphlet Collection, 1818-1907.
Detroit Urban League Papers, 1916-1950, at the University of Michigan
RECAP Microfilm 09607 Printed guide (FilmB) F574.D49 N454
The East St. Louis Race Riot of 1917
RECAP Microfilm 05592 Online guide Short contents index on reel 1 8 reels
“Transcripts of congressional hearings by a House select committee following the outbreak of racial violence on July 2, 1917 in East St. Louis, Illinois in one of the most significant, deadly riots in U.S. history. Also included is the transcript of the criminal conspiracy trial of Dr. LeRoy Bundy, as well as other reports, records, and some photographs relevant to the riot. The hearings are arranged chronologically, preceded by a handwritten index of subjects and persons.”
Fannie Lou Hamer, 1917-1977: Papers, 1966-1978
RECAP Microfilm 11839 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) E185.97.H35 A3 2005a 17 reels
“Fannie Lou Hamer was a leading civil rights figure and among the most heroic of the movement’s activists. She spearheaded black voter registration in the Delta and was a leader and moving force behind the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.”
FBI File on A. Philip Randolph
RECAP Microfilm 07313 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.97.R36 F34 1 reel
“A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979), an outspoken black labor leader, is perhaps best remembered as the organizer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. He was elected a vice president of the AFL-CIO in 1955. The FBI’s first interest in Randolph came in 1922 at his request: he had received a death threat in the mail which included a severed black hand. This file includes memos and correspondence, most dating from the 1940s with some coverage into the early 1960s.”
FBI File on Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
RECAP Microfilm 10705 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) E748.P86 F34 8 reels
“The FBI file covers the years 1940 to the 1960’s and contains newspaper clippings and close accounts of Adam Clayton Powell’s movements.”
FBI Files on Black Extremist Organizations
RECAP Microfilm 12456 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.615 .F534 2005 8 reels
Cointelpro files on black hate groups and investigation of the Deacons for Defense and Justice.
FBI File on the Black Panther Party, North Carolina
RECAP Microfilm 06082 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.615.F24 2 reels
FBI File on Elijah Muhammad
RECAP Microfilm 10593 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) BP223.Z8 E4532 3 reels
“These FBI files provide background into the life of Elijah Muhammad and follow his activities and teachings as the spiritual leader of the Nation of Islam from 1953 until his death in 1975.”
FBI File, Highlander Folk School
RECAP Microfilm 09608 Printed Guide (FilmB) LC5301.M65 F34 1 reel
FBI File on John L. Lewis
Microfilm 11817 Printed guide (FilmB) HD6509.L4 F24 2 reels
FBI File on the KKK Murder of Viola Liuzzo
RECAP Microfilm 09176 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.98.L58 F24 1990 1 reel
FBI File on Malcolm X
RECAP Microfilm 10595 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) BP223.Z8 L574 10 reels
“The documents reproduced here were drawn from the Washington files of the FBI and have been released under the Freedom of Information Act.” In addition to numerous newspaper articles, published interviews, and transcripts, there is a transcript of the Mike Wallace TV program News Beat, segment entitled: The Hate that Hate Produced.”.
See also:
Transcripts of the Malcolm X Assassination Trial: the People of New York v. Thomas Hagan, Thomas 15X Johnson, and Norman 3X Butler
Microfilm 09179 Printed guide (FilmB) KF224.H3 H342 1993 1 reel
“Transcripts of the 1966 Malcolm X assassination trial include the full testimony for all withnesses of the defense and prosecution, and affidavits containing the original handwritten confession of Thomas Hagan [also known as Talmadge Hayer], the only actual assassin who was convicted of the crime.”
FBI File on Martin Luther King, Jr.
Microfilm 05368 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.97.K5 L47 25 reels
Part I of The Martin Luther King, Jr. FBI File; Part II: The King-Levison File
“The FBI’s declassified documents that are contained in the two parts of The Martin Luther King, Jr. FBI File allow the reader to follow the development of King’s own career and civil rights activities in a way never before possible. Taken as a whole, this publication makes available to researchers in history, political science, sociology, and law a crucially important documentary record on one of the central leaders and one of the central issues of our time.” There are also verbatim transcripts of conversations between King and one of his most trusted confidants, Stanley Levison.
See also: Internet Archive: Complete FBI File on Martin Luther King, Jr. and
Stanley Levison: Federal Bureau of Investigation. This FBI file consists of security investigations of Stanley Levison from the 1950’s through the early 1970’s. Levison was a key advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr.
FBI File, MIBURN (Mississippi Burning): The Murders of Michael Henry Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Earl Chaney, June 21, 1964
RECAP Microfilm 09175 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.93.M6 F34 1 reel
FBI File on the Moorish Science Temple
RECAP Microfilm 11875 Printed Guide (FilmB) BP232.F23 1998 3 reels
“Noble Drew Ali, Prophet of Islam, founded the Moorish-American Science Temple in Chicago. The FBI investigated the Moorish Science Temple for its alleged hostility toward capitalism and its efforts to incite revolution. This collection is organized into geographic sections demarcating FBI headquarters and various field offices, including Baltimore, Chicago, and Philadelphia. It is filed chronologically within the geographic sections. Materials contain correspondence, memos, reports, interviews, and pamphlets.”
FBI File on the Murder of Lemuel Penn
RECAP Microfilm 11871 Printed guide (FilmB) HS2330.K63 F344 1997 5 reels
FBI File on the Muslim Mosque, Inc.
RECAP Microfilm 10591 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) BP223.Z8 L5743 3 reels
The collection covers Malcom X’s split with the Nation of Islam, as well as the formation, and surveillance of the Muslim Mosque, Inc. that continued beyond his death.
FBI File on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
RECAP Microfilm 07314 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.5.N276 F34 4 reels
“These files on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) cover the years 1923 to 1957, and reflect bureau investigations into the NAACP’s supposed connections with the Communist party.”
FBI File on the National Negro Congress
RECAP Microfilm 06061 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.F34 2 reels
FBI File on the Organization of Afro-American Unity
RECAP Microfilm 10594 Printed guide (FilmB) BP223.Z8 L5745 1 reel
Formed in 1964, “the Organization of Afro-American Unity was the brainchild of black activist Malcolm X. The documents reproduced here were drawn from the Washington files of the FBI.”
FBI File on Paul Robeson
RECAP Microfilm 06062 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.97.R63 F34 2 reels
FBI File on the Reverend Jesse Jackson
RECAP Microfilm 06148 Printed guide: none 1 reel
FBI File on Roy Wilkins
RECAP Microfilm 07312 Printed guide (Film B) E185.97.W54 F34 1 reel
“Provided is information on Wilkins’s connections to such figures as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Paul Robeson. The file is also rich in Black Panther Party documents critical of Wilkins.”
FBI File on W.E.B. Du Bois
RECAP Microfilm 10592 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.97.D73 F24 1 reel
The documents reproduced here were drawn from the Washington files of the FBI concerning Du Bois’ membership in the Communist Party, tours of West Africa and Eastern Europe, excerpts of speeches, newspaper clippings, and files of the Passport Office.
FBI File on Thurgood Marshall
RECAP Microfilm 11883 Printed guide (FilmB) KF8745.M34 F35 2001 1 reel
“This file contains information on Marshall’s civil rights activities in Texas during the 1950s and his allegations of harassment by Texas rangers and the Texas attorney general. Material reproduced here includes hate mail received by Marshall, background checks on Marshall and his supposed communist sympathies, and details on the FBI’s surveillance of Marshall. The file also details Marshall’s acrimonious relationship with the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover.”
FBI File on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
RECAP Microfilm 09178 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.F355 2 reels
“The FBI maintained a file on the SNCC because Communists were believed to be infiltrating its leadership. This file comprises reports from nineteen cities, including Atlanta (SNCC national headquarters), Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco. Each section is in chronological order, spanning 1964 to 1973. The file contains addresses, membership, and information on groups believed to associate with the SNCC.”
FBI files on Black Extremist Organizations.
RECAP Microfilm 12456 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.615 .F534 2005 8 reels
Part 1 contains COINTELPRO files on black hate groups and investigation of the Deacons for Defense and Justice.
Part 2 covers Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panther Party.
FBI Files on Selma, Memphis, Montgomery, Albany, and St. Augustine
RECAP Microfilm 11926 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.C46 1988 21 reels
“Centers of the Southern Struggle makes available for the first time FBI headquarters files on five of the most pivotal arenas of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s: Selma, Memphis, Montgomery, St. Augustine, and Albany. These files provide a day-by-day, and frequently an hour-by-hour, record of the activities, strategies, and alliances of the civil rights movement. They are also noteworthy both for the light they shed on such national figures and groups as Martin Luther King Jr., the SCLC, SNCC, CORE, and the NAACP, and for the raw data and analyses they supply on the many grassroots movements for racial equality that grew during the 1960s.”
FBI Investigation File on Marcus Garvey
Microfilm 04447 Printed guide: none 1 reel
The collection contains FBI reports, memoranda, clippings, letters, and telegrams about Garvey’s activities.
Federal Surveillance of Afro-Americans, 1917-1925: The First World War, the Red Scare, and the Garvey Movement
RECAP Microfilm 05596 Printed guide: none 25 reels
Federal records that detail efforts of the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its earlier organization, to target black Americans for harassment and persecution because of alleged or supposed Communistic or radical activities after World War I. Persons were suspect if they belonged to radical labor unions, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, or other radical organizations.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations
RECAP Microfilm 12390 Printed guide: (FilmB) E806 .F6917 2008 18 reels
This is a collection of essential materials for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement--concerned with the issues of lynching, segregation, race riots, and employment discrimination.
Frederick Douglass Papers (1817-1895)
RECAP Microfilm 1083.309 Printed guide: none 20 reels
Freedmen's Aid Society records, 1866-1932
RECAP Microfilm 11661 Printed guide (FilmB) LC2703 .F743 120 reels
Consists of the records of the Freedmen's Aid Society, which was established by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1866 to set up schools for African Americans in the South.
Series 1. Letterpress correspondence
Series 2. Receipt books
Series 3. Steward missionary foundation
Series 4. Educational institutions
Series 5. General correspondence
Series 6. Correspondence between staff members
Series 7. Correspondence of a personal nature
Series 8. Remaining documents
Series 9. Annual reports, 1866-1924
Series 10. Reports of board and committee meetings, 1866-1924
General Education Board archives. Series I, Appropriations
RECAP MICROFILM 12535 Printed guide (FilmB) LC243.G3 A3 1993
Collection, covering 1901-1967, reveals the inner workings of the GEB; shows how it specifically aided countless African-American schools, teachers, and students throughout the South; and illustrates the tense race relations of the early twentieth century and the efforts of determined leaders to overcome hostility. The documents in this collection are organized alphabetically by state and then by location or institution. Included are reports by GEB’s state agents on educational conditions in the South and various school problems, correspondence among GEB officers, institutions requesting aid, and state agents, and pamphlets from the institutions requesting aid. Each reel contains a reel guide. Subseries 1, The early southern program (159 reels) -- Subseries 3, New southern program and related programs, 1931-1961 (201 reels).
George A. Myers Papers (1859-1930)
RECAP Microfilm 09177 Printed guide (FilmB) E748.M93
Gumby, L. S. Alexander
African American Culture and History: The L.S. Alexander Gumby Collection of Negroiana: From the Holdings of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Columbia University in the city of New York.
RECAP Microfilm 12135 Online guide Printed guide: none 21 reels
Materials consist of newspaper clippings, periodical extracts, photos, pamphlets, playbills, letters, manuscripts, and materials Gumby gathered personally from subjects such as Josephine Baker, Joe Louis, Paul Robeson, and many other political, cultural and sports figures. Also includes individual scrapbooks on noted people, such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Ralph Bunche, Frederick Douglass, Marcus Garvey, Jackie Robinson, Booker T. Washington.
Horace Mann Bond Papers
RECAP Microfilm 11591 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.97.B65 A3 98 reels
Part 1. Bond family papers, 1892-1971, and general correspondence, 1926-1972 (9 reels) Part 2. Subject files, 1926-1971 (36 reels)
Part 3. Institutional files, 1919-1972 (38 reels)
Part 4. Research files, 1910-1971, and writings, 1926-1972 (15 reels)
John and Lugenia Burns Hope Papers
Microfilm 05653 Printed guide (FilmB) Z6616.H67H67
Lugenia Burns Hope and John Hope Papers
RECAP Microfilm 05653 Printed guide (FilmB) Z6616.H67H67 21 reels
Martin Luther King, Jr. FBI Assassination File
Microfilm 04449 Printed guide: none 25 reels
Mary Church Terrell Papers
RECAP Microfilm 11885 Printed guide: none 34 reels
Mary McLeod Bethune Papers: The Bethune-Cookman College Collection, 1922-1955
RECAP Microfilm 10234 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.97.B34 A3 13 reels
Microfilm Edition of the American Missionary Association Archives, Amistad Research Center
RECAP Microfilm 05360 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) (Film B) Z7817.A45 261 reels
The American Missionary Association (AMA) was established in 1846 as an interdenominational missionary society devoted to abolitionist principles. The Association grew directly from the committee organized in 1839 to defend the Africans who had revolted and seized the schooner La Amistad. The papers provide the detailed history of the AMA from its origin to 1882.
Military Intelligence Division Correspondence relating to “Negro Subversion,” 1917-1941
RECAP Microfilm 09662 Online guide Printed guide: none 6 reels
Reproduced record cards and correspondence of the Military Intelligence Division (MID) that relate to activities of blacks in both civilian and military life, 1917-41.
Minority Voter, Election of 1936 and the Good Neighbor League
Microfilm 12137 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) JK526 1936.D48 2008 10 reels
Designed as a case study of minority, including African American, women, and ethnic, involvement in a presidential election campaign, using the 1936 Democratic Campaign as a model.
National Archives. Correspondence of the Military Intelligence Division relating to “Negro Subversion,” 1917-1941
RECAP Microfilm 09662 Online guide Printed guide: none 6 reels
Reproduced record cards and correspondence of the Military Intelligence Division (MID) that relate to activities of blacks in both civilian and military life, 1917-41.
The Negro in the military service of the United States, 1639-1886
Microfilm 1099.9227 Printed guide (FilmB) CD3026.A52 5 reels
Consists of records compiled for publication by the Colored Troops Division of the Adjutant General’s Office in 1888. Originals held by National Archives as part of Record Group 94, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's-1917.
See also
National Archives Online guide
Negro Labor Committee Record Group, 1925-1969
RECAP Microfilm 11589 Online guide Printed guide: (FilmB) E184.6.G853 17 reels
Included in the manuscript collection are the personal files of Frank R. Crosswaith, founder and longtime chairman of the Negro Labor Committee.
New Deal Agencies and Black America
Microfilm 05473 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.L47 25 reels
Materials found in this collection pertain primarily to the New Deal-black experience for the years between 1933 and 1940. Materials were drawn from the following agencies, Office of Education, National Youth Administration, Department of Interior, Civilian Conservation Corps, Department of Labor U.S. Employment Service, National Recovery Administration, Department of Commerce, and Works Progress Administration.
Paul L. Dunbar Papers (1872-1906)
Microfilm 09609 Printed guide (FilmB) PS1557.P385 9 reels
Paul Robeson Collection
Microfilm 06952 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.97.R63A35 9 reels
Papers of Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1915-1950
RECAP MICROFILM 11590 Printed guide (FilmB) E175.5.W65 A3 34 reels
Papers of the Civil Rights Congress
Microfilm 11925 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.C59 1988 125 reels
Part 1. Case Files. Part 2. Files of William Patterson and the National Office. Part 3. Publications. Part 4. Communist Party USA files. Part 5. Citizens Emergency Defense Conference.
“The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was established in 1946, and fought for the protection of the civil rights and liberties of African Americans and suspected communists primarily through litigation, political agitation, and the mobilization of public sentiment. African American lawyer and Communist leader William Patterson served as executive secretary of the organization throughout its existence.”
Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1941-1967
RECAP Microfilm 04276 Printed guide (FilmB) Z1361.N39M46 1980 49 reels
“Strategies, tactics and ideologies of CORE are documented in these papers. Internal records, reports, project files, correspondence, convention notes, newsletters and other information related to civil rights organizations are included.”
Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1944-1968: Addendum
RECAP Microfilm 04562 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.P36 25 reels
“This collection offers materials recently released for micro-publication which were unavailable at the time of the 1980 program entitled The Papers of the Congress of Racial Equality, 1959-1976. The Addendum spans the years 1944-1968, with the largest portion of materials dealing with the 1961 to 1968 period when CORE adopted a more militant strategy in response to the Black Power movement. The collection was filmed from the holdings of the Library and Archives of The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia.”
Papers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Microfilm 05354 Online guides Printed guide (FilmB) Z1361.N39 G84 500+ reels
Papers of the National Negro Congress, 1933-1947
Microfilm 11689 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.N374 94 reels
Part I: Records and correspondence, 1933-1942
Part II: Records and correspondence, 1943-1947
Part III: Financial records, 1940-1947, and publications
Part IV: Negro Labor Victory Committee, 1942-1945
Papers of the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society
Microfilm 1083.706 reels 2-5 (reel 1 is missing; request through ILS)
Papers of W.E.B. Du Bois
RECAP Microfilm 04494 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) Z6616.D8M35 89 reels
The Papers of W.E.B. DuBois provides insight into a critical period in modern social and political history through the eyes of a black leader. Researchers can trace the changes in DuBois's political and social philosophy over the years as he shifted more and more toward radicalism and eventually became a member of the Communist Party of America at the age of 93. His correspondence, representing as it does a lifetime of progressive thought, also provides valuable historical insight into the development of the modern civil rights movement.
See also
[W.E.B.] Du Bois Notebooks, 1905-1934
RECAP Microfilm 03378 Printed guide: none 4 volumes on 1 reel
[W.E.B.] Du Bois Papers at Fisk University. Boxes 54-63
Microfilm 11721 Printed guide: none 6 reels
[W.E.B. Du Bois] Papers
Microfilm 03169 Printed guide: none 1 reel
Primarily typescript copies of speeches and radio broadcasts.
Peonage Files of the U.S. Department of Justice, 1901-1945
RECAP Microfilm 06400 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) HD4875.U6 P46 26 reels
Rich in legal, social, and labor history, the collection contains material on the first federal prosecution under the peonage statute, U.S. v. Eberhart, in 1898, and the first Supreme Court case dealing with peonage,Clyatt v. United States, began in 1901 in Florida.
President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights
RECAP Microfilm 05573 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) E813.J84 10 reels
This microfilm collection brings together the various manuscript materials in the Harry S. Truman Library at Independence, Missouri, relative to the President's Committee on Civil Rights, 1946-1948. There are some documents illuminating the origins of the PCCR and the promotion of its report. The bulk of the material, however, is on the operation and organization of the Committee itself. The richest and most extensive documents (over 2,500 pages) are the transcripts of the Committee meetings and the testimony of groups and individuals before the Committee.
Public Housing, Racial Policies, and Civil Rights : The Inter-Group Relations Branch of the Federal Public Housing Administration, 1936-1963
RECAP Microfilm 0000 Printed guide: NA 31 reels
Race, slavery and free blacks [microform]: petitions to southern legislatures, 1777-1867
RECAP MICROFILM 10695 Printed guide (FilmB) E441 .R323 23 reels
Records of the American Colonization Society
Founded in 1817, the American Colonization Society sought to resolve the problem of slavery in America by helping African-Americans to return to Africa. The records of the ACS available through interlibrary loan from the Center for Research Libraries.
Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Parts 1-3
RECAP Microfilm 11720 Printed guide (FilmB) HD6515.R362 B76 50 reels
Part 1. Records of the BSCP, 1925-1969 (30 reels) Online guide
Part 2. Records of the Ladies Auxiliary of the BSCP, 1931-1968 (10 reels) Online guide
Part 3. Records of the BSCP relations with the Pullman Company, 1925-1968 (10 reels) Online guide
Documents the founding of the BSCP and its early efforts to gain recognition from the Pullman Company. Scores of letters and organizing reports show the union's appeal to rank and file porters and the company's efforts to keep the union at bay.
Records of the Committee on Fair Employment Practices: Division of Review and Analysis: Part 1. Racial Tension File, 1943-1945
RECAP Microfilm 11991 Printed guide (FilmB) HD8081.A65 S55 2006 9 reels
"The Committee on Fair Employment Practice formulated and interpreted policies to combat racial discrimination in employment; received, investigated, and adjusted complaints of discrimination; and assisted government agencies, employers, and labor unions with problems of discrimination. Part 1 consists of Racial Tension File in the Records of the Division of Review and Analysis. The Division’s records include information about the African American community during World War II. The Division was responsible for operational analysis, program planning, and research. The Racial Tension File documents encompass the years 1943 through 1945 and are arranged alphabetically by city. The file provides information on employment, housing, recreational facilities, industries, strikes and postwar planning for areas in which racial disturbances were anticipated."
See also
Records of the Committee on Fair Employment, Record Group 228, 1940-1946. National Archives. Online guide
Records of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, 1895-1992
RECAP Microfilm 09022 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.86.R426 41 reels
Part 1. Minutes of national conventions, publications, and President’s office correspondence (26 reels)Online guide
Part 2. President’s office files, 1958-1968 (15 reels) Online guide
This collection documents the founding of the organization and the role that it has played in the political, economic, and social development of the modern African-American community, as well as its involvement in national and international reform movements.
Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior relating to the suppression of the African slave trade and Negro colonization, 1854-1872
MICROFILM 09663 Guide at start of reel 1 10 reels
Records of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1954-1970. Parts 1-4
RECAP Microfilm 10096 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.61.S687
Part 1. Records of the President’s office (21 reels) Online guide
Part 2. Records of the Executive Director and Treasurer (22 reels) Online guide
Part 3. Records of the Public Relations Dept. (10 reels) Online guide
Part 4. Records of the Program Dept. (29 reels) Online guide
Registers and letters received by the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872
RECAP Microfilm 08519 Printed guide: (FilmB) E185.2 .U547 1968 74 reels
The Bureau "supervised all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen. Assumed custody of abandoned or confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, border states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory." From National Archives, Record Group 105, Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. National Archives - Online guide.
Robert H. Terrell Papers
RECAP Microfilm 11868 Guide contents listed at the beginning of reel 1 4 reels
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. New York Public Library, Black and Third World Periodicals, Sample Issues, 1844-1963
RECAP Microfilm 11984 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) E185.5.S35 1995 8 reels
This collection includes samples issues of black periodicals published in the United States, West Indies, and Africa, as well as other publications dealing primarily with Africa or peoples of African descent wherever they reside. The periodicals are arranged alphabetically by title.
Scottsboro Case: State of Alabama v. Patterson, et. al.
Microfilm 05618 Printed guide: none 7 reels
Consists of original and photostat copies of documents from the Scottsboro trials and appeals, collected by Samuel S. Leibowitz, counsel for the defendants.
Selected series of records issued by the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, 1865-1872
Microfilm 08518 Online guide Printed guide: none 7 reels
Southern Civil Rights Litigation Records for the 1960s
RECAP Microfilm 05448 Printed guide (FilmB) KF4756.A1G84 or (SF)KF4756.A1G84 170 reels
“This voluminous microfilm collection, with elaborately indexed records of major civil rights cases, was compiled from holdings of the Legal Defense Fund of the NAACP, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Lawyers Constitution Defense Committee, and individual attorneys. The original documents are housed at Tougaloo College.”
The Southern Regional Council papers, 1944-1968
RECAP MICROFILM 12458 Printed guide (FilmB) HN79.A13 S687 1984 225 reels
Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union Papers, 1934-1970
RECAP Microfilm 06126 Printed guide (FilmB) Z7164.T7 S5 60 reels
Founded by seven black and eleven white sharecroppers on an Arkansas cotton plantation in July1934, the STFU laid the groundwork for and contributed to the creation of the LaFollette Civil Liberties Committee in the U.S. Senate and the Kennedy-Johnson Administration's War on Poverty. A unique feature of this collection is the correspondence from sharecroppers to union officials. Notes scrawled on scraps of paper or penciled on the backs of outdated calendars tell of usurious landlords, sick children, and flood conditions.
State Free Negro Capitation Tax Books, Charleston, South Carolina, ca.1811-1860
RECAP Microfilm 08353 Guide appears at the beginning of reels 1 and 2
"The twenty-nine books in this publication list names of many free blacks who lived in Charleston between 1811 and 1860. The tax collector of the parishes of St. Philip's and St. Michael's probably created the books to collect the capitation tax between 1756 and 1865. Names, addresses, tax status, and notations like 'dead' and 'overage' appear. The 1822 and 1823 books list occupations." Records from the South Carolina Archives. Guide on film at beginning of both reels.
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Papers, 1959-1972
Microfilm 04530 Printed guide (FilmB) E185.5.xS78 73 reels
One of the most important civil rights groups in the late '50s and early '60s, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was also to become one of the most controversial in its later years. Formed by student activists nationwide in response to the burgeoning student sit-in movement in 1960, SNCC adopted the Gandhian theories of nonviolent direct action, which had been formulated by CORE in the 1940s. Collection includes correspondence, project files, internal reports, and others materials.
See also Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of California, The Movement, Microfilm S00846 Underground Press Collection. Guide to collection, (Film B) Z6951.U4
Transcripts of the Malcolm X Assassination Trial: The People of the State of New York v. Thomas Hagan, Thomas 15X Johnson, and Norman 3X Butler
Microfilm 09179 Online guide Printed guide KF224.H3 H342 1993 3 reels
Official transcripts of the trial at the New York Supreme Court : The People of the State of New York v. Thomas Hagan, Thomas 15X Johnson, and Norman 3X Butler. (Indictment No. 871 of 1965; Steno No. 7255).
Tuskegee Institute News Clippings File
Microfilm 05488 Printed guide (FilmB) Z1361.N39xT8 1978 252 reels
“Covering the years 1899 to 1966, these clippings were compiled from more than 300 major American national dailies, leading American south-eastern dailies, African-American newspapers, magazines, religious and social publications, and non-US newspapers. They cover a variety of topics: civil rights, discrimination, economic conditions, lynching, race relations, riots, sports, health, politics, and other subjects.”
Universal Negro Improvement Association, Records of the Central Division, New York, 1918-1959
RECAP Microfilm 11989 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) E185.86.U55 1988 6 reels
Collection also contains records related to organizations affiliated with the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) including Garvey Clubs, and the Pan-African Community League, among others.
Universal Negro Improvement Association Records, 1921-1986
RECAP Microfilm 11994 Online guide Printed guide (FilmB) E185.86.U48 A12 1994 16 reels
Correspondence, reports, conference proceedings, speeches, minute and ledger books, membership certificates, and much more relating to the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914 as a philanthropic and fraternal ogranization to promote pan-Africanism, the UNIA developed into a radical political group that advocated repatriation to Africa, among other things. The major portion of this collection dates from the period 1940-1950.
[W.E.B.] Du Bois Notebooks, 1905-1934
RECAP Microfilm 03378 Printed guide: none 4 volumes on 1 reel
W.E.B. Du Bois Papers (1868-1963)
RECAP Microfilm 04494 Printed guide (FilmB) Z6616.D8 M35 89 reels
[W.E.B.] Du Bois Papers at Fisk University. Boxes 54-63
RECAP Microfilm 11721 Printed guide: none 6 reels
[W.E.B. Du Bois] Papers
Microfilm 03169 Printed guide: none 1 reel
Primarily typescript copies of speeches and radio broadcasts.
William H. Hastie Papers. Part 2. Civil Rights, Organizational, and Private Activities
RECAP Microfilm 11824 Printed guide (FilmB) KF373.H38A25
Attorney William Henry Hastie was the first African American appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit by President Truman in 1949. Part 2 of the collection documents his activities as a civil rights lawyer, educator, and judge. Part I, covering his opinions are available in the Federal Reporter in print, LexisNexis and Westlaw (online in both the academic and law school versions).
