African American Studies Resources

UH Libraries' Special Collections

Located on the 2nd floor of the M.D. Anderson Library, the Special Collections contains historical documents, artifacts and digitized images such as:

Black Panther Papers
Harlem Renaissance Literature
DJ Screw Recordings (see link below)
African American Studies Program Records, 1990-2001
18th century Ethiopian tablets

Lynn Eusan, First African American
Homecoming Queen at the University of Houston.

Courtesy of Special Collections,

University of Houston Libraries.

DJ Screw Photographs & Memorabilia
Photographs, handwritten rap lyrics and song lists for “screw tapes,” and flyers related to the late DJ Screw and his rap collective the Screwed Up Click.

Other Local Archives

See what these institutions have to offer and pay them a visit!

Historical Archives

Frederick Douglass Newspapers, 1847 to 1874
This online collection presents newspapers edited by Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), the African American abolitionist who escaped slavery and became one of the most famous orators, authors, and journalists of the 19th century.

O Say Can You See
This site documents the challenge to slavery and the quest for freedom in early Washington, D.C., by collecting, digitizing, making accessible, and analyzing freedom suits filed between 1800 and 1862,
as well as tracing the multigenerational family networks they reveal.

The King Center Archives
There are nearly a million documents associated with the life of Martin Luther King Jr. These pages will present a more dynamic view than is often seen of Dr. King’s life and times. The documents reveal the scholar, the father, and the pastor.

Voices Remembering Slavery: Freed People Tell Their Stories
The almost seven hours of recorded interviews presented here took place between 1932 and 1975 in nine Southern states. Twenty-three interviewees, born between 1823 and the early 1860s, discuss how they felt about slavery, slaveholders, coercion of slaves, their families, and freedom.