Research Guides: *African American Studies: Archives

Northwestern University Library Archival Collections Portal

Archival Collections: access to primary source materials, with searchable Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids, including guides for the papers of Claude Barnett, Cyrus Colter, William Exum, Katherine Flowers, Leon Forrest, Lorraine Morton, and Lorenzo Dow Turner.

NULibraries Archival & Manuscript Collections
The finding aids in this database describe archival and manuscript materials held by various Northwestern University libraries.

Northwestern University Archives

University Archives documents the history of Northwestern. Repository for non-current official University records and other records, including the papers of faculty members, records of student organizations, materials pertaining to alumni, publications, photographs, scrapbooks, and artifacts.

1968 Student Protests
Exhibit of May 3-4, 1968 occupation of 619 Clark Street business office by students organized by For Members Only & the Afro-American Student Union.
Citizens for 65, records of, 1953-2003
Organization supporting Gregory C. Coffin, Superintendent of Community Consolidated Schools District 65, and his policies on integrating Evanston schools.
Guide to Student Protests and Strikes @Northwestern 1965-79
Guide to primary source materials held by Northwestern University Archives.
Martin Luther King, Jr. @ NU
Dr. King delivered the Mars Lecture on April 15-16, 1958.

The Black Experience at Northwestern University Research Guide
by Charla Wilson Last Updated Apr 11, 2024 306 views this year

Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections, NULibrary

Finding Aids available online:

Chicago Area

1963 Chicago Public Schools Boycott
From Chicago History Museum; Chicago Public Library; Media Burn Archive; and, UIC Special Collections & Archives.
Black Metropolis Research Consortium
Chicago-based membership of libraries, universities, and other archival institutions.
Black Metropolis Research Consortium Archives Portal
Bronzeville Historical Society blog
Chicago Jazz Archive
University of Chicago Library Special Collections Research Center.
Mapping the Stacks
Guide to Black Chicago's Hidden Archives (University of Chicago). (Pre BMRC)
National Archives at Chicago
Civil Rights Cases: Great Lakes Region
Timuel D. Black Jr. Digital Collection
Archival documents and artifacts of noted Chicago educator, activist and historian (1918-2021)
Uncovering New Chicago Archives Project
UNCAP Finding aids

Archival Serials

Acid Free
Los Angeles Archivists Collective quarterly, 2015?-
Archive Journal
e-Amistad Reports
The electronic Newsletter of the Amistad Research Center, New Orleans, LA.
HUArchivesNet
Electronic Journal of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, D.C.

Archival Blogs

Rediscovering Black History
African Americans with the Say it Loud! Employee Affinity Group, National Archives

Tools

Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology
Published by the Society of American Archivists in 2005, contains some 2,000 defined entries, 600 lead-in terms, and 700 citations from 280 sources.
Personal Digital Archiving
The Library of Congress' National Digital Information Infrastructure & Preservation Program provides best practices for digital preservation of photographs, audio, video, email, personal digital records, and websites.

Notable African American Archives

Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Repository for American Missionary Association holdings: papers of artists, educators, authors, business leaders, clergy, lawyers, factory workers, farmers and musicians documenting modern Civil Rights Movement.
Atlanta University Center Archives
Includes the archives of Clark Atlanta University, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College and Spelman College.
Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture
Operates as a small museum, a national historic site with a listing on the National Register of Historic Sites, and a cultural center. College of Charleston
Black Archives, History & Research Foundation of South Florida, Inc.
Manuscript and photographic repository that collects, preserves and disseminates the history and culture of Black South Florida (1896 - present).
Black Archives of Mid-America, Kansas City, MO
Manuscripts and artifacts (photographs, correspondence, oral histories, and rare books) covering Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and the Midwest at large.
Camille Billops and James V. Hatch Archives, Emory University
Visual and performing arts: books, periodicals, posters, pamphlets; interviews with writers, artists, poets and cultural figures; Karamu Theatre (Cleveland, OH) records; scripts of Black authored plays; and Paul Robeson materials.
David C. Driskell Papers
At the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Digital Smith
James B. Duke Memorial Library, Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, NC
Gordon Parks Foundation
HBCU Library Alliance Digital Collection
Collections of primary resources from member libraries of the Historically Black College and University Library Alliance.
Hiphop Archive and Research Institute, Harvard University
James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters
In the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University Library.
Madam Walker/A'Lelia Walker Family Archives
A’Lelia Bundles, Madam C. J. Walker’s great-great-granddaughter and biographer, leads the largest privately owned collection of Walker material.
Manuscript Collections Relating to Slavery, New York Historical Society
Includes diaries, account books, letter books, ships’ logs, indentures, bills of sale, personal papers, and records of institutions.
Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change Archive
Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections on African American history.
Moorland Spingarn Research Center Publications, Howard University, Washington, DC
National Archives: Access to Archival Databases
Records cover civilian and military functions and have many genealogical, social, political, and economic research uses.
National Archives for Black Women's History
Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site.
Payne Theological Seminary and A.M.E. Church Archive
Collaboration between Payne and Princeton Theological Seminary digitizing historical archives and contributing them to the Theological Commons.
Rhode Island Black Heritage Society
Historical material relating to the history of the Blacks in Rhode Island.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library
Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division Finding Aids.
Separate Cinema
Over 25,000 movie posters, lobby cards, and photographs, from over thirty-four countries, that chronicle the historic journey of the Black film industry.
Tuskegee University Archives Repository
Books, manuscripts, periodicals and newspapers, ephemera, photographic images, disc and tape recordings, and other archival items.
Xavier University Archives & Special Collections, New Orleans, LA
Holdings on the history of Xavier University, African American history & culture, Roman Catholicism in the U.S., and the Gulf Caribbean region & Southern U.S.

Archival Directories

Archival Research Catalog
National Archives.
ArchiveGrid
Primary source materials held in over 1,000 archives, libraries, museums & historical societies.
Digital Howard
Howard University Archives, Manuscript Division and Prints & Photographs Department.
Hidden Collections Registry
Council on Library and Information Resources
Internet Archive
Millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.
National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
Operated by the Library of Congress, NUCMC creates online records in OCLC WorldCat on behalf of eligible archival repositories throughout the United States.
President's Commission on Slavery & the University
University of Virginia
Repositories Holding Southern Freedom Movement Documents & Locations of Organizational and Personal Papers
Social Networks and Archival Context Project
SNAC prototype is from the University of California at Berkeley's School of Information, and the California Digital Library.

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
WorldCat is the world’s most comprehensive database of library materials. Updated at a rate of nearly one new record every second, WorldCat contains bibliographic records and holdings contributed by more than 11,000 libraries around the world.

Other Collections

African-American Mosaic
Library of Congress resource guide for the study of Black history and culture.
African-American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship
Library of Congress digital collection.
African-American Women: Online Archival Collections
From the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University
African American collections
Emory University's Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Atlanta, GA
African American Episcopal Historical Collection
From the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church and the Bishop Payne Library at Virginia Theological Seminary.
African American Missouri History
African American Music Collection
University of Michigan
African American Oral History Collection
University of Louisville
African American Reference Reports
Research strategies for frequently used records relating to African American genealogy in the National Archives.
Archives of African American Music and Culture
Indiana University
Black Abolitionist Archive
University of Detroit Mercy's collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum Blacks and approximately 1,000 editorials from the period.
Black Film Center/Archive
Indiana University, Bloomington
Black Male Archives
Rodney Freeman's collective of experiences and journeys.
Chicago Jazz Archive
University of Chicago Library Special Collections Research Center.
Civil Rights Archive
University of Mississippi Libraries
Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive
McCain Library & Archives, the University of Southern Mississippi.
Confederate Slave Rolls, 1874 - 1899
Confederate Quartermaster Dept.'s payrolls for slave labor.
Digital Library on American Slavery
Database of information about slaves, slaveholders, and free people of color, from petitions to southern legislatures and country courts filed 1775-1867 in fifteen slaveholding states in the U.S. and the District of Columbia.
District of Columbia Africana Archives Project (completed 2017)
District of Columbia Archives, Historical Society of Washington, DC, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Public Library, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, and Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
DOCUMERICA - John H White photographs
- a set on Flickr
Emmett Till Archives
Florida State University
Georgetown Slavery Archive
Materials relating to the Maryland Jesuits, Georgetown University, and slavery.
Guide to African American Resources in the Pennsylvania State Archives
Harry Haywood Archive
The Marxist-Leninist, a revolutionary communist website. Haywood (1898-1985) was a member of the Communist Party of the United States, serving on the Central Committee from 1927 to 1938.
Hiphop Archive and Research Institute
Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University
Horace Mann Bond Papers, 1830-1999
Special Collections and University Archives: W.E.B. Du Bois Library: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Jazz Archive - Hamilton College
Maryland Institute Black Archives
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
National Ragtime and Jazz Archive
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville at Lovejoy Library.
Our Documents
Cooperative of National History Day, National Archives & Records Admin, and USA Freedom Corps.
Public Health Archives: Public Health in Modern America, 1890-1970
Racial Justice Archive
Collaborative project by Dr. Geoff Ward, Washington University in Saint Louis
Records Relating to African Americans - New York State Archives
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library + Archives
Cleveland, OH
Rockefeller Archive Center
African-American History and Race Relations (1993, rev. 2006) descriptive guide [108 page pdf]
Tulsa Race Riot 1921
University of Tulsa, McFarlin Library
Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture: A Multi-Media Archive
By Stephen Railton, University of Virginia
W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999
W.E.B. Du Bois Library: University of Massachusetts Amherst

Notable Archival Projects

AFL-CIO Records Research Guide
University of Maryland is the official repository for records of the merged American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).
Atlanta Black Archives Alliance
Eight institutions, formed in 2017, by a group of Atlanta-area archivists.
BLACKIVISTS
A collective of trained Black archivists.
Blvck Vrchives
Archival histories & modern-day stories from the African diaspora, 2015-.
FESTAC: Second World Black and African Festival of Art and Culture 1977
Documents, papers, videos, and articles from the personal archive of US delegate Abdul Alkalimat.
Freedmen’s Bureau Project
Transcription and digitization of Freedmen’s Bureau collection, accessed through FamilySearch.
Legacy of Slavery in Maryland
Maryland State Archives electronic publication.
Protest in the Archives
Black Metropolis Research Consortium, Chicago, IL
W. E. B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999 (bulk 1877-1963)
MS 312; 294 boxes (122.59 linear ft.) digitized by the Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Libraries | Research Guides

*African American Studies

Contact