LibGuides: *Africana Studies: 1955-1971

Civil Rights Era 1955-1971

African Diaspora, 1860-Present African Diaspora, 1860-Present allows scholars to discover the migrations, communities, and ideologies of the African Diaspora through the voices of people of African descent. With a focus on communities in the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France, the collection includes never-before digitized primary source documents, including personal papers, organizational papers, journals, newsletters, court documents, letters, and ephemera.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records The focus of the Federal Government Records module is on the political side of the freedom movement, the role of civil rights organizations in pushing for civil rights legislation, and the interaction between African Americans and the federal government in the 20th century. Major collections in this module include the FBI Files on Martin Luther King Jr.; Centers of the Southern Struggle, a collection of FBI Files covering five of the most pivotal arenas of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s: Montgomery, Albany, St. Augustine, Selma, and Memphis; and records from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations, detailing the interaction between civil rights leaders and organizations and the highest levels of the federal government.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records, Supplement This module supplements the original module of Federal Government records by adding civil rights records from the Ford and Reagan presidencies. The Ford administration records in this module consist of the subject files of J. Stanley Pottinger, who was the assistant attorney general in charge of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, which enforced civil rights laws, and the subject files of Anne R. Clarke, who was a special assistant in the Research Unit of the Civil Rights Division's Sex Discrimination Program. Records from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library consist of the White House Office of Records Management Subject File on Human Rights and seven collections released as a result of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1 The Organizational Records and Personal Papers bring a new perspective to the Black Freedom Struggle via the records of major civil rights organizations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle. The three major civil rights organizations are the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. Papers of civil rights leaders included in this module are those of the civil rights and labor leader A. Philip Randolph; the long-time civil rights activist and organizer of the March on Washington, Bayard Rustin, and the papers of the pioneering educator Mary McLeod Bethune.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 2 This Black Freedom module provides the records of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Africa-related papers of Claude Barnett, and the Robert F. Williams Papers.

Black Liberation Army and the Program of Armed Struggle 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." The BLA carried out a series of bombings, robberies (what participants termed "expropriations"), and prison breaks.
Black Nationalism and the Revolutionary Action Movement: The Papers of Muhammad Ahmad (Max Stanford) 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). Date Range:1962-1999

Black Thought and Culture Covers the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other fugitive material.
Civil Rights and Social Justice
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive‎ (1880 - 2020) An archival research resource containing primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to the 21st century. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Subject coverage: • Film industry • Music business • Rock and pop • Jazz and blues • Theater • Television • Radio Coverage: 1880 – 2015
FBI Confidential Files and Radical Politics in the U.S., 1945-1972 This module consists of records of the FBI and the Subversive Activities Control Board from 1945-1972. Highlights of this module include J. Edgar Hoover's office files; documentation on the FBI's so-called "black bag jobs," as they were called before being renamed "surreptitious entries"; and the "Do Not File" File. The "Do Not File" file consists of records that were originally supposed to be destroyed on FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's order, however, through both intended and inadvertent exceptions to this order, large portions of these files survived.

FBI Surveillance of James Forman and SNCC This collection of FBI reports comprises the Bureau’s investigative and surveillance efforts primarily during the 1961-1976 period, when James Forman was perceived as a threat to the internal security of the United States. The collected materials also include Forman’s involvement with the "Black Manifesto" and the Bureau’s "COINTELPRO" investigations into "Black Nationalist - Hate Groups / Internal Security," which include information on the activities of SNCC.
Federal Response to Radicalism in the 1960s This archive sheds light on the internal organization, personnel, and activities of some of the most prominent radical groups in the United States in the 1960s. The files contained here include: COINTELPRO: The Counterintelligence Program of the FBI FBI File on Abbie Hoffman FBI File on Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers FBI File on the Students for a Democratic Society and the Weatherman Underground Organization FBI File on the Fire Bombing and Shooting at Kent State University FBI File on Brown Berets
Federal surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 Throughout the twentieth century Black Americans of all political persuasions were subject to federal scrutiny, harassment, and prosecution. The Federal Bureau of Investigation enlisted black "confidential special informants" to infiltrate a variety of organizations. Hundreds of documents in this collection were originated by such operatives.

Independent Voices Independent Voices is a digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

James Meredith, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Integration of the University of Mississippi This collection contains extensive FBI documentation on Meredith’s battle to enroll at The University of Mississippi in 1962 and white political and social backlash, including his correspondence with the NAACP and positive and negative letters he received from around the world during his ordeal.

NAACP Papers: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files This collection includes documents relating to:Meetings of the Board of Directors, Records of Annual Conferences, Major Speeches and Special Reports, 1909–1970Personal Correspondence of Selected NAACP Officials, 1919–1939Race Relations in the International Arena, 1940–1955Board of Directors Correspondence and Committee Materials, 1919-1955National Staff Files, 1940–1965
NAACP Papers: Branch Department, Branch Files and Youth Department Files The NAACP branch files in this module chronicle the local heroes of the civil rights revolution via NAACP branches throughout the United States, from 1913-1972. The contributions of scores of local leaders, attorneys, community organizers, financial benefactors, students, mothers, school teachers, and other participants are revealed in these records.
NAACP Papers: Special Subjects These files cover subjects and episodes that are crucial to the NAACP's history, such as civil rights complaints and legislation, the Klan, Birth of a Nation, the Walter White-W. E. B. Du Bois controversy of 1933-1934, communism and anticommunism during the years of the "red scare," the congressional prosecution of Hollywood personalities, the prosecution of conscientious objectors during World War II, NAACP's relations with African colonial liberation movements, NAACP fundraising and membership recruitment, urban riots, the War on Poverty, and the emergence of the Black Power Movement.
NAACP Papers: The NAACP’s Major Campaigns - Legal Department Files This collection includes the following documents:Legal Department Administrative Files, 1956–1965Legal Department Case Files, 1956–1965, the South; Northeast; Mid and Far WestThe South: 1960–1972, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and TexasThe Northeast: 1960–1972, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and New York
NAACP Papers: The NAACP’s Major Campaigns—Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces Major campaigns for equal access to education, voting, employment, housing and the military are covered in this module. The education files in this second module document the NAACP's systematic assault on segregated education that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Files from 1955 –1965 focus on the NAACP's efforts to implement the Brown decision as well as to combat de facto segregation outside of the South. Voting rights was one of the NAACP's earliest major campaigns. The voting rights document in extensive detail the NAACP's campaign against the white primary, discriminatory registration practices, the grandfather clause, and the triumphs of the 1957 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
NAACP Papers: The NAACP’s Major Campaigns—Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses The focus of this module is on the NAACP's efforts to combat lynching, mob violence, discrimination in the criminal justice system, and white resistance to civil rights efforts. These files are supplemented by materials on segregation and discrimination complaints regarding public accommodations and recreational facilities sent to and investigated by the NAACP, and records on discrimination in employment.

Papers of Amiri Baraka, Poet Laureate of the Black Power Movement This collection was made available by Dr. Komozi Woodard. Dr. Woodard collected these documents during his career as an activist in Newark, New Jersey. Includes 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. Date Range: 1913-1998.
Republic of New Afrika This collection provides documentation collected by the FBI through intelligence activities, informants, surveillance, and cooperation with local police departments. These documents chronicle the activities of Republic of New Afrika national and local leaders, power struggles within the organization, its growing militancy, and its affiliations with other Black militant organizations.
Ralph J. Bunche Oral Histories Collection on the Civil Rights Movement The Ralph J. Bunche Oral History Collection from the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center is a unique resource for the study of the era of the American civil rights movement. Included here are transcriptions of close to 700 interviews with those who made history in the struggles for voting rights, against discrimination in housing, for the desegregation of the schools, to expose racism in hiring, in defiance of police brutality, and to address poverty in the African American communities.
Rosa Parks Papers
Southern Negro Youth Congress and the Communist Party James E. and Esther Cooper Jackson are African American communists and civil rights activists, best known for their role in founding and leading the Southern Negro Youth Congress (1937-48).Date Range:1932-2000

Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa (JSTOR) The collection consists of more than 190,000 pages of documents and images, including periodicals, nationalist publications, records of colonial government commissions, local newspaper reports, personal papers, correspondence, UN documents, out-of-print and other particularly relevant books, oral histories, and speeches relating to the liberation of Southern Africa and the dismantling of the Apartheid regime.

We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death: Freedom Riders in the South, 1961 Freedom Riders were civil rights activists that rode interstate buses into the segregated South to test the United States Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia. Boynton had outlawed racial segregation in the restaurants and waiting rooms in terminals serving buses that crossed state lines.