NAACP Archive is the Largest at the Library of Congress

If you want a behind-the-scenes look at the Civil Rights Movement, just spend some time at the Library of Congress. There you will find rows upon rows of original material on the NAACP.

The records, according to Adrienne Cannon, the Afro-American history and culture specialist for the library's Manuscript Division, are the cornerstone of the library's resources on the long fought struggle for civil rights in American society.

"The NAACP records are a virtual encyclopedia of the African American experience in the 20th century," she says.

For nearly 40 years, the Library of Congress has been the official repository for NAACP records. There are 8,114 manuscript containers and approximately 5 million items on the day-to-day activities of the organization. The NAACP collection is (he largest single collection ever acquired by the library and annually is the most heavily used.

The records date from 1909, the year of the NAACP's inception, up to 2000. Generally, organizations keep records on hand for five years before sending them to the Library of Congress to be preserved.

"You get to see and read about a lot of things that were not reported or written about," says James Murray, the official librarian and archivist for the NAACP. "We all are familiar with Dr. Martin Luther King, but there were a lot of (other) things going on at that time as well, like teachers losing their jobs because they went to vote, sharecroppers being put off of their land because they voted; you get to read the affidavits from people who were beaten while sitting on their porch by police officers -police brutality. It goes on and on."

In the collection are minutes, budgets, reports, press releases, speeches, bills, receipts and other correspondence. Indeed, the information can be found in various formats including: manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets, broadsides, audio tapes, phonograph records, films, and video recordings.

Though the collection concentrates on the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement, it also has information about major figures, organizations and events. It chronicles African American society in politics, employment, education, family, health care, sports, military, recreation, religion and the arts.

The collection's international focus also makes it unique. There are several files related to Africa and the Caribbean.

Cannon says the richness of the collection accounts for its popularity.

Author Kenneth Janken, associate professor for Afro-American studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says he used the library for research on his book White: The Biography of Walter White, Mr. NAACP.

"The collection is outstanding. I've used it for both my books," says Janken, who is also the author of Rayford W. Logan and the Dilemma of the African American Intellectual, a biography of a prominent scholar and Pan-African activist. "It's complete as you can get. It's difficult to do research in civil rights history without looking at it. It's such a comprehensive collection."

- Betsy Adeboyejo

Copyright Crisis Publishing Company, Incorporated Jan/Feb 2004
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