Primary Sources

Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.

Collection of digitized primary sources originally produced by the Race Relations Department at Fisk University. The Race Relations Department was an influential think tank offering a forum for discussion and research on racial topics. Subjects addressed include poverty and inequality, segregation, class, housing, employment, education, and government policy.

The collection includes over 100 hours of audio recordings of speeches given by prominent members of the Civil Rights movement, surveys, case studies, photographs, and scrapbooks. The physical documents were digitized from the archives of the Race Relations Department of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, housed at the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans.

Dates covered: 1943-1970.