African American History Manuscript Collections in the Rubenstein Library

The papers of Gwendolyn M. Parker, which primarily document her writing carreer, span the years 1967-1998 with the majority of the papers dating from 1986-1997. They consist primarily of diaries, correspondence, clippings, writings, and other miscellaneous printed and manuscript materials.

The papers of Henry Nathaniel Oakes chiefly consist of research material for and drafts of Oakes's 1973 Ph.D. dissertation, which focuses on the career of Robert Elijah Jones (1872—1960), the first African American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, elected in 1920. Oakes's materials document the relationship between Jones and his close friend Booker T. Washington, Jones's accomodationist approach to racial integration, as well as the black struggle for equality in the predominantly white Methodist Episcopal Church in the first half of the twentieth century.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies (JCPES) is a nonprofit American research and public policy institution, or think tank, founded in 1970 to aid black elected officials in creating effective policy and successfully serve their constituents. The collection includes subject files, writings, publications, photographs, audiovisual materials, and electronic records pertaining to JCPES events, programs, and projects especially of concern to African Americans in the late 20th century.

Judy Juanita (b. 1946) is a poet, author, and teacher based in the San Francisco Bay Area. This collection includes drafts and other materials from her debut novel, Virgin Soul, as well as correspondence and subject files from her research and activism in the Black Panther Party.

Correspondence concerning the newspaper business; the 1888 meeting of the Afro-American Press Association; the political machinations and newspaper policies of T. Thomas Fortune, editor of the New York Age; fraternal affairs including the Negro Odd Fellows and the Negro Masons; and Robinson's efforts to obtain a position as doorkeeper in the United States Congress.

Nellie McKay (d. 2006) was a scholar and co-editor of the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature. Collection consists of letters from Nell Irvin Painter to Nellie Y. McKay.

Nell Irvin Painter is a scholar, teacher, and writer in 19th- and 20th-century American and African American history, collection contains correspondence, research notes, photocopies of original documents, manuscripts, publication proofs, syllabi, department memoranda, records of her speaking engagements, photographs, personal journals, papers, and photographs, many varying audiovisual formats, and computer diskettes.

The Richard J. Powell Papers document Powell's career as a prominent scholar of African and Afro-American art. Materials in the collection date from 1960 to 2011, with the bulk being from 1975 to 2011, and document most aspects of Powell's career, beginning with his student years and including his travels, research, and work at several major cultural institutions, including Duke University, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, and the Washington Project for the Arts.