Microtext Subject Guide: African American History

Black Abolitionist Papers, 1830-1865 MFE 1153
In this collection of primary sources the anti-slavery movement that precipitated the Civil War may be seen through the eyes of black abolitionists. The collection encompasses approximately 15,000 articles and documents of almost 300 black abolitionists in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany. Collection also includes articles, essays and editorials from some 200 African-American abolitionist and reform newspapers; correspondence of key African leaders; receipts, poems, and other miscellaneous documents. The guide provides indexes by author, recipient of letters, and formal titles.

Black Culture; A Core Collection of the African-American Experience MFM 1178
A collection of approximately 6,000 titles including books, pamphlets, speeches, photographs, dissertations and other valuable papers documenting the past three centuries of the black experience in America and Europe. Material was selected from the extensive collection at Atlanta University's Trevor-Arnett Library.

Black Newspaper Collection MFM 1155
Collection contains most of America's foremost black newspapers, covering 15 states, beginning in 1896 and updated each year with current issues. Editorial viewpoints range from the conservative to the near-radical and represent some of the most respected voices in African-American journalism. Newspapers included in the core collection are Amsterdam News (New York, NY), Atlanta World (GA), Baltimore AfroAmerican (MD), Call & Post (Cleveland, OH), Journal & Guide (Norfolk, VA), Los Angeles Sentinel (CA), Michigan Chronicle (Detroit, MI), Muslin Journal (Chicago, IL), St. Louis Argus (MO). Beginning in 1975 the newspapers in the core collection have been indexed. Additional titles included are Birmingham World (AL), Forward Times (Houston, TX), Louisville Defender (KY), New Crusader (Chicago, IL), Philadelphia Tribune (PA), Gary Crusader (IN), Indiana Herald (IN), Kansas City Call (MO), Milwaukee Courier (WI), and Post Tribune (Dallas, TX).

Black Workers in the Era of the Great Migration, 1916-1929 MFM 1042
During World War I one-half million black Americans left the South and streamed into northern industrial centers as the war economy, cessation of foreign immigration, and the mobilization of the armed forces created new job opportunities for workers in industry. Known as the "Great Migration", this exodus continued and doubled in volume during the next decade. This collection of documents focuses on migration and labor and the impact on black America during the first decade of this Great Migration. Federal agencies generated a multitude of surveys, reports, and case files. Those with explicit mention of black workers and their living and working conditions are included here. Part of "Black Studies Research Sources" series.

Claude A. Barnett Papers MFM 1041
Claude Barnett (1889-1967), ranked by Ebony magazine as among the one hundred most influential black Americans, founded the Associated Negro Press (ANP) in 1919 and remained its director through nearly half a century of social change. By providing its member newspapers with coverage of activities within black communities across the country and current national trends and events, the ANP helped create a national black culture and increased black awareness of national news. Todd Library has Part 3 - Subject Files on Black Americans, 1918-1967 which includes topical files containing stories clipped from ANP releases. The topical files are divided into the following series: agriculture; colleges and universities; economic conditions; entertainers, artists, and authors; medicine; military; philanthropic and social organizations; politics and law; race relations; religion; and Claude A. Barnett personal files. Microfilmed from holdings of the Chicago Historical Society.

Commission on Interracial Cooperation, 1919-1944 MFM 1280
The Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC) was formed in response to the race riots that followed World War I, and included a moderate coalition of blacks and whites. This collection includes correspondence, minutes of CIC meetings, pamphlets and reports, and CIC educational material.

Congress of Racial Equality Papers: Addendum, 1944-1968 MFM 1288

East St. Louis Race Riot of 1917 MFM 1040
World War I and the immediate postwar era were marked by a number of bloody racial confrontations. One of the most important and the one with the highest death toll occurred at East St. Louis, Illinois, on July 2, 1917. Because of the volume and nature of the surviving evidence, it is also the race riot which is most accessible to historians for scholarly investigation. Because the riot resulted in the virtual suspension of commerce between Illinois and Missouri for up to ten days, the U.S. Congressional committee that conducted the investigation was called the House Select Committee to Investigate Conditions in Illinois and Missouri Interfering with Interstate Commerce between These States. The transcripts of the hearings and related records reproduced in this collection are at the National Archives. Also included is the transcript of the criminal conspiracy trial of Dr. LeRoy Bundy, the principal leader of the East St. Louis black community who was charged with inciting the riot.

Exploration and Colonization of Africa (1794-1844) MFM 496
Letters, treaties, narratives, travel accounts, and journals concerning French and British colonization activities, explorations of the interior of Africa, missions to the Barbary States, and the expeditions to the Niger to abolish slave trade (1839-1841 and 1841-1843) are in this collection.

FBI File on the Highlander Folk School MFM 1296
Myles Horton established the Highlander Folk School in 1932 in Monteagle, Tennessee. Unions sent potential leaders to the school to learn about collective bargaining, contract negotiation, and strike organization. The school became racially integrated in the 1940s, a development which met with sharp criticism from conservative whites. This collection includes bureau memorandums, teletypes and letters, as well as newspaper clippings.

Federal Surveillance of Afro-Americans (1917-1925) MFM 1163
During the First World War and the subsequent Red Scare years the Justice Department and its Bureau of Investigation, the intelligence branches of the Army and Navy, the State and Post Office Departments, and other federal agencies engaged in widespread investigation of anyone deemed politically suspect. Black Americans were special targets because they were perceived by some as particularly receptive to the radical ideas. This collection of records provides a vast treasure of source materials documenting the major social movements and key figures in early 20th century black history, tracing the development of America's first domestic surveillance apparatus, and illuminating the conflict between the needs for a country to protect basic individual freedoms and to protect itself from threats to its security and existence. For more information on surveillance of radicals during this period, see MFM 1175, U.S. Military Intelligence Reports: Surveillance of Radicals in the United States, 1917-1941. (Item # 128)

General Education Board: The Early Southern Program MFM 1282 Key source materials on the history of African-American education in the twentieth century.

Martin Luther King, Jr., FBI File MFM 1176
The 17,000 page file on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. compiled by headquarters officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, details the heavy surveillance that was directed against America's foremost civil rights leader throughout the 1960's. Through these declassified FBI documents researchers may follow the development of King's career and civil rights activities. Part I (without a special title) (16 reels) consists of hundreds of FBI memos, reports, and summaries of King's activities as well as his conversations with associates. Because the fruits of wiretaps placed by the FBI on King's own home, office, and hotel rooms are under court order that will keep them sealed at the National Archives until 2027, no verbatim transcripts of these wiretaps can be made public. However, Part II, "The King-Levison File", originates from wiretaps placed on the phones of Stanley Levison, a New York lawyer and businessman and King's trusted confidant with whom he spoke on an almost daily basis for more than six years. The transcripts and summaries in this section shed light not only on King's many civil rights activities and his involvement in related causes, but on his personal feelings toward and reactions to the events of the last six years of his life. Note should be taken of the "Correlation Summaries" which are lengthy inventories listing every FBI file reference to a specific individual, such as Dr. King, not contained in the main file on that person. Also, Reel 16 of Part I is a file of newspaper clippings, wire service stories, and other public source materials concerning King that FBI headquarters collected. This subfile provides an extensive sample of nationwide press coverage of King without having to search through scores of individual newspapers. Part of "Black Studies Research Sources" series.

Negro Periodicals in the United States, 1840-1960 MFE 117 & MFM 1213-5
A project devoted to the history of social change and to preserving the literature, science, music, art, religion, facts, fiction, and traditions of the Negro Race. Reproduces approximately thirty periodical titles.

New Deal Agencies and Black America MFM 1165
This collection contains the major portion of National Archives materials which relate to the New Deal-black experience between 1933 and 1940, with a few instances of records extending to 1943. Materials come from the files of the Office of Education, National Youth Administration, Department of Interior, Civilian Conservation Corps, U.S. Employment Service of the Department of Labor, Office of the Secretary of the Department of Labor, National Recovery Administration, Department of Commerce, and Works Progress Administration. Part of "Black Studies Research Sources" series.

Papers of George Washington Carver, 1864-1943 MFM 1148 George Washington Carver did much in his lifetime to promote racial harmony and black achievement in American life. This historical archive traces the remarkable career of this slave-become-scientist and is the most complete collection of Carver's public and private papers available to libraries. Collection includes memorabilia, correspondence to and from Carver, Carver's writings, writings about Carver, and miscellaneous materials relating to Carver's life and work.

Papers of W. E. B. DuBois, 1877-1965 MFM 1149
William Edward Burghardt DuBois (1868-1963) was one of the earliest and most influential spokesmen for African-American liberation, and he pioneered many of the strategies and programs of the American civil rights movement. DuBois was a historian and a prolific author with 21 books to his credit, the most famous of which is The Soul of Black Folk (1903). As an internationally known author and activist, DuBois corresponded with some of the most important figures of his time, including Sherwood Anderson, Andrew Carnegie, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., Margaret Mead, Booker T. Washington, and Roy Wilkins. Collection documents the changes in DuBois's political and social philosophy over the years as he shifted more and more toward radicalism and eventually at the age of 93 joined the Communist Party of America.

Peonage Files of the U.S. Department of Justice, 1901-1945 MFM 1164 A federal statute of 1867 outlawed peonage, but it was not enforced until 1898. Peonage is a form of labor control that relies on debt to compel a worker. This microfilm publication, primarily from records in the National Archives, is rich in legal, social, and labor history. It contains fresh material on federal prosecutions under the peonage statute; it illuminates the uses of power, especially of local law enforcement officials who often sided with employers to compel workers to pay off their debts or remain at work; and it demonstrates the aggressive although often futile attempts of the Justice Department and Supreme Court to stop the practice. While most complaints involved black rural workers, at times immigrants, coal miners, and others from among the poor and ill-educated fell victim to peonage. Part of the "Black Studies Research Sources" series.

Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks. Series II, Petitions to Southern County Courts, 1775-1867 (MFM 1383)
Reproduces a collection of approx. 15,000 petitions assembled by the Race and Slavery Petitions Project, University of North Carolina at Greensboro from selected state archives.