Poster for Melvin A. Butler Third Annual Memorial Black Poetry Festival, 1974. (Resource found using Umbra Search)
African American Artists in Collections- explore a selection of works by African American artists included in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
Black Abolitionist Archive - a collection of over 800 speeches by antebellum Black abolitionists and approximately 1,000 editorials from the period. These important documents provide a portrait of Black involvement in the anti-slavery movement.
Black Film Archive - Black Film Archive is a living register of Black films. In its current iteration, it showcases Black films made from 1898 to 1989 currently streaming.
Black Inventor - online museum focusing on top Black inventors over the last 300 years
Black Joy Archive - "The archive is intended to serve black people as a therapeutic practice in self-preservation and self-esteem, as we are continually asked to face painful imagery of folks who look like us...an open-call was made for individuals to submit images of their joy - be it childhood or family photos, candids or personal artwork they have created."
BlackPast.org - an online reference center makes available a wealth of materials on African American history in one central location on the Internet. These materials include an online encyclopedia of over 4,000 entries, the complete transcript of more than 300 speeches by African Americans, other people of African ancestry, and those concerned about race, given between 1789 and 2016, over 140 full text primary documents, bibliographies, timelines
Black Women’s Suffrage Portal - a collaborative project to provide digital access to materials documenting the roles and experiences of Black Women in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and, more broadly, women’s rights, voting rights, and civic activism between the 1850s and 1960.
Civil Rights Digital Library - includes a digital video archive of historical news, film and other primary sources. Can browse by media type.
Colored Convention Project, Digital Records - features hundreds of collected documents of the Colored Conventions movement, spanning from the 1830s through the 1890s.
Digital Harlem - information, drawn from legal records, newspapers and other archival and published sources, about everyday life in New York City's Harlem neighborhood in the years 1915-1930. Most of the material relates to the years 1920, 1925, and 1930.
Digital Library of the Caribbean - digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
F.B. Eyes Digital Archive - The F.B. Eyes Digital Archive makes available for the first time a collection of 51 FBI files on prominent African American authors and literary institutions, many of them unearthed through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
Guide to the Ida B. Wells Papers, 1884-1976 - partially digitized collection including original manuscripts, correspondence, newspapers and journal articles written and compiled by Ida B. Wells
HBCU Library Alliance Digital Collections - collection of primary sources from HBCU libraries and archives. Includes photographs, university correspondence, manuscripts, images of campus buildings, memorabilia, event programs, and more.
Kyky Archives - a digital archive and educational resource for Black Lesbian, Queer, Gender non-conforming, and Trans People; featuring historical photos, records, art, and ephemera of the Black Queer community.
Library of Congress: African American History Online Resources - A large number of primary source collection materials related to African American history are digitized and available online via the Library of Congress's website, including manuscripts, newspaper articles, images, and rare books
RADAR: Repository of AUC Digital collections, Archives, and Research - Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library's institutional repository, including including research and scholarly output, archival collections, and theses and dissertations. Materials included in RADAR have been selected and deposited by the students and faculty of the member schools, Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, and Spelman College, and the librarians of the Robert W. Woodruff Library.
Rosa Parks Papers, 1866-2006 - includes approximately 7,500 items in the Manuscript Division, as well as 2,500 photographs in the Prints and Photographs Division, documents many aspects of Parks's private life and public activism
Schomburg Digital Collections @NYPL - scroll down to see collections related to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; collections include photographs, prints, rare books, archival material, and more.
South Side Home Movie Project Archive - Collects, preserves, digitizes, researches and screens home movies made by residents of Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods. The archive includes small-gauge films (8mm, Super8mm, 16mm) covering a period from the 1920s to the 1980s.
Umbra Search African American History - this tool searches more than 500,000 digitized African American primary sources (letters, manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, etc.) from over 1000 participating archives, libraries, and museums in the U.S. From the Univ. of Minnesota.
Umi's Archive - is a multipart, multimedia research project that digs deep into the life of one woman, Amina Amatul Haqq (1950-2017), neé Audrey Weeks, to explore the meanings of being Black and Muslim in the world.
These notable archives contain archival material that often requires in person access. Visit the specific archive's website to explore options related to digital access or scanning requests.
Archives of African American Music and Culture - a repository of materials covering a range of African American musical idioms and cultural expressions from the post-World War II era. Collections highlight popular, religious, and classical music, with genres ranging from blues and gospel to R&B and contemporary hip hop. The AAAMC also houses extensive materials related to the documentation of Black radio. Located at Indiana University-Bloomington.
African American History @ Stuart A. Rose Archives - robust primary resource materials covering six principle collecting areas--Civil Rights and Post-Civil Rights Movements, Black print Culture, Blacks and the Left, African American Literature and the Arts, Expatriate Literary and Cultural Figures, and African Americans and Sports. Located at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
African American Museum & Library at Oakland - holds primary and secondary materials which preserve the history of African Americans in Northern California and the Bay Area. Contains over 160 collections documenting prominent families, pioneers, churches, social and political organizations. Located in Oakland, CA.
Amistad Research Center - collects, preserves, and provides access to original materials that reference the social and cultural importance of America's ethnic and racial history, the African Diaspora, human relations, and civil rights. Located at Tulane University.
Atlanta University Center Archives - includes the archives of Clark Atlanta University, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College and Spelman College. Also has many individual, familial, and organizational collections representing the breadth of African American experiences.
Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture - holds nearly 4000 primary and secondary source materials which preserve the history and culture of African Americans in Charleston, the South Carolina Low Country, and South Carolina at large. Located at the College of Charleston.
Black Archives of Mid-America - collects and preserves historical materials and artifacts related to the African American experience in the Midwest with an emphasis on Kansas City, MO region. Located in the historic 18th and Vine District in Kansas City, MO.
The Black Film Center/Archive - collects and preserves films and related materials which have substantial participation by African American writers, actors, producers, directors, musicians, and consultants as well as those which depict some aspect of the black experience. Located at Indiana University-Bloomington.
Fisk University Special Collections and Archives - over 130 primary resource collections of African American scholars, poets, writers, artists, and businessmen including the complete Charles W. Chesnutt Papers. Located in Nashville, TN.
Freedom Archives - The Freedom Archives contains over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings and thousands of historical documents from the late-1960s to the mid-90s and chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international movements. Located in Berkeley, CA.
Henry Hampton Collection @ the Film and Media Archive - most notably known for his Eyes on the Prize documentary series chronicling the Civil Rights Movement. Henry Hampton's filmic legacy--over 58,000 items-- as well as organizational records for the historic Blackside Inc, production company are preserved here. Located at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center - one of the oldest African American archives in the country. Includes the Howard University Archive. Located in Washington, D.C.
National Archive for Black Women's History - only archive solely dedicated to the history of African American women. Core collection includes historic corporate records of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), along with personal papers, and corporate records of organizations mostly associated with the NCNW. Located in Landover, MD.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture - one of the world's leading research facilities devoted to the preservation of materials on the global African and African diasporan experiences. Contains over 11 million items in its non circulating collections. Located in New York City, NY.
Tuskegee University Archives Repository - Notable HBCU founded by Booker T. Washington. Collection includes books (including faculty publications), manuscripts, Tuskegee University periodicals and newspapers, ephemera, photographic images, disc and tape recordings, and other archival items. Located in Tuskegee, AL.
Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection @ Chicago Public Library - Largest African American history and literature collection in the Midwest with a strong focus on the black experience in Chicago. Contains photographs, manuscripts, rare books, and organizational records. Located in Chicago, IL.
The Black Diaspora Archive (BDA) is a collaborative project at UT Austin. Established in 2015 and housed at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, the BDA collects documentary, audiovisual, digital, and artistic works related to the Black Diaspora of the Americas and Caribbean.
This encompasses historical publications, contemporary records, personal papers, and rare material produced by and/or about people of African descent—including scholars, professionals, community groups, activists, and artists.
Huston-Tillotson University Archives
The Huston-Tillotson University Archives serves as the long-term repository for the institutional records of the central Texas HBCU. This includes yearbooks, administrative reports, board reports, photographs, publications, recordings, correspondence and more.
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