African American studies resources in Special Collections: Literature, arts and culture
Discover and engage with rare and unique historic materials related to African American studies in Stanford Libraries
Manuscript collections
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Marlon Riggs archive, including papers, videos, and personal items, 1957-1994Materials documenting the filmmaker, educator, poet, and gay rights activist.
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Cheryl D. Miller papers, circa 1950-2010Collection documenting a graphic designer and racial, cultural, and gender equity advocate.
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Collection of sheet music by and about African Americans, 1851-1974Sheet music by African American writers or published by African-American publishers, as well as music or illustrations with African-American themes. Both series contain offensive caricatures. Many prominent jazz, ragtime, blues and popular composers are included.
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Barbara L. Kevles collection on Gordon Parks, ca. 1976-2001Includes notes from interviews with and about Gordon Parks, film coverage in periodicals, notes from interviews with Gene Parks and others, and manuscript and typed drafts of Kevles' article on Gene Parks.
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Flaurience Sengstacke Collins correspondence from Fay McKeene Hershaw, 1937-1938Correspondence between two African American women journalists who co-authored a book about their world travels in the 1930s.
Rare books
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Harlem heyday : the photography of James VanDerZee : portraits of the Harlem community during the 1920s and 1930sExhibit catalog published by the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1982.
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Black feeling, Black Talk, Nikki Giovanni1968 first edition of Nikki Giovanni's political and personal poetry.
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Four Negro poets ...Poems by Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes from the Pamphlet poets series, published in 1927.
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The Affrilachian sonnets : poems, Frank X WalkerLetterpress, illustrated book of poetry by the Kentucky founder of the Affrilachian Poets.
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For colored girls who have considered suicide, when the rainbow is enuf, Ntozake ShangeChoreopoem performed by seven women exploring the love and sorrows of being Black and being a woman.
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Another country, James BaldwinFirst edition of Baldwin's novel exploring many themes that were taboo at the time, including bisexuality, interracial couples, and extramarital affairs.
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Spring in New Hampshire and other poems, Claude McKayFirst edition by the Harlem Rennaissance poet.
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The weary blues, Langston HughesSigned by the author and includes a program of his speaking event at the Lincoln Normal School (a historically black college founded to train teachers in Alabama).
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Around the world with Hershaw and CollinsTwo African American women journalists write about their world travels in the 1930s.
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E.V. Griffith papers, ca. 1945-1995Contains a pamphlet edition of "Freedom's Plow" signed by Langston Hughes.
Selected electronic resources
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Black thought and cultureBlack Thought and Culture is a source for published and unpublished works of historically important Black leaders.
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Afro-Americana imprints, 1535-1922, from the Library Company of PhiladelphiaCreated from the Library Company of Philadelphia's Afro-Americana Collection. This online resource contains more than 12,000 printed works including books, pamphlets and broadsides about African American history, literature and culture.
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