African American Collections at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives

In this guide, we highlight our collections from posters to streaming interviews relevant to African American experiences in the United States and abroad.

Select Archival Collections and Library Materials

Boyd (Leonard Russell) papers -  Diaries, correspondence, unit histories, clippings, and memoranda, relating to the activities of the 93rd Division at the battle of Bougainville, and in other operations in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Civil rights movement in Alabama pamphlet collection

David Benjamin Bolen papers, 1944-2001 - Speeches and writings, correspondence, dispatches, memoranda, reports, clippings, and photographs, relating to American relations with South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and East Germany. Also available on microfilm (32 reels).

Inventory of the Robert West Beyers papers - Speeches and writings, correspondence, notes, press releases, memoranda, and printed matter, relating to work of the Council of Federated Organizations (composed of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and other organizations) in carrying out a voter registration drive among black citizens of Mississippi in 1964, involvement of Northern college student volunteers, and attendant violence.

Overview of the The Ligurian campaign in Italy : processed volume - Relates to operations of the 92nd Infantry Division of the United States Army in the Ligurian region of Italy, from September 1944 to April 1945.

The Militant photographic collection, ca. 1900-2000 - Photographs, drawings, and printed reproductions of illustrations, depicting activities of antiwar, civil rights, labor, racial justice, women's rights and other protest movements in the United States and other countries, mainly from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Ruth Ricci Eltse papers, 1935-1942 - Correspondence, writings, and photographs, relating to the Italo-Ethiopian War, to Italian colonization of Libya, and to Italian relations in North and East Africa. Includes an album of photographs of Benito Mussolini.

Rice (Condoleezza) papers - The Condoleezza Rice papers (1976-2019) consists of papers, photographs, albums, scrapbooks, videorecordings and media relating to her education, academic career and government service.

African American Archival Collections

African American Library Materials

Select Posters from the United States

US 8107 - Poster depicting an African American warrior

US 8109 - Drawing of a black panther.

US 8112 - Photograph of Malcolm X.

US 8129 - Political prisoners of USA Fascism. Ministry of Information. Black Panther Party. Box 2967 Custom House, San Francisco, CA 94126.

Select Firing Line Episodes

The Firing Line broadcast records include videotapes from the Firing Line television show, as well as sound recordings, administrative and speaker files, program research files, photographs, transcripts, and other materials from the show. The types of program research materials available for each program are listed in the Episode Guide. The Episode Guide also includes a summary and guest list for each episode, as well as a link to the episode details page on Hoover's digital collections website. 

How Does It Go with the Black Movement? Guest: Huey P. Newton Taped on January 23, 1973.

The Black Panthers Guests: Cleaver, Eldridge, 1935- 13 November 1968

“Was the Civil-Rights Crusade a Mistake?" Guest: Godfrey Cambridge Taped on January 15, 1968

"Black Power" Nat Hentoff, Taped on March 3, 1967

The Republic of New Africa Milton Henry Taped on November 18, 1968

Civil Rights and Foreign Policy Floyd B. McKissick Taped on August 22, 1966

Julian Bond and John Lewis on Firing Line 1974 , “Politics and Black Progress”

Thomas Sowell "The Economics and Politics of Race"

Thomas Sowell "The Economic Lot of Minorities"