Correspondence and miscellaneous materials relating to personal liberty, civil rights, crime and criminals, desegregation of schools, and women.
The Baldwin Library contains many books by Black authors and illustrators, as well as 19th & 20th century books by with authors & illustrators depicting Black peoples and once-popular characters, such as Black Sambo, Uncle Remus, and the Kentucky Twins.
Online exhibit
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The Belknap Collection for the Performing Arts spotlights the talented and determined African American women who faced resistance and adversity while perfecting their art on bandstands, theatre and concert stages, radio, film and in recording studios.
Finding Aid for African American Cinema
The papers of Farris Bryant cover the years 1942 to 1977, with an emphasis on the Florida Legislative, gubernatorial elections in 1956 and 1960, and his career in the Federal Office of Emergency Planning. The collection contains information on subjects of interest to historians that, when used in conjunction with other sources, provide a picture of Florida in the post-World War II era.
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The digital archive over 700 oral history interviews with African American elders throughout Florida and the wider Gulf South. These interviews and the overall projects associated with them have resulted in numerous public programs, university seminars on African American history and Ethnic Studies, and community-based oral history workshops.
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Papers of social activist Robert Benjamin Canney, primarily related to his trial and imprisonment following a 1970 anti-war demonstration in St. Petersburg, Florida.
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Business records of Chase and Company and affiliates, as well as the personal correspondence of members of the Chase Family and family genealogical records.
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The E. A. Cosby Collection dates from 1936 to 2010 and contains the papers of Dr. Edgar Allen Cosby, a dentist, University of Florida Professor, amateur photographer, and prominent member of Gainesville's African American Community. The collection includes materials documenting his professional life as a dentist, his activities in the Gainesville community, personal and family life, involvement with the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, and numerous photographs (including prints, negatives, slides, and scrapbooks).
The collection, which spans the second half of the nineteenth century, includes 28 documents. Some are letters of slave owners to the priest of the church of Montserrat in La Habana, Cuba; others are death certificates of slaves, runaway slaves, and free persons of color issued by the Real Hospital de Caridad de San Felipe y Santiago.
Includes Cubberly's research on Florida history as well as documents and correspondence from peonage cases he was involved in while he was the United States Attorney for the North West District of Florida.
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The Cunningham Funeral Home in Ocala documents the largest minority-owned business in Marion County, Florida. Brothers Albert and James Cunningham founded the company in 1955. Besides burial records, the collection contains photographs, financial transactions, oral histories, maps, letters, secretarial notes, political history, and notes on dress and life in Florida - all of which form the legacy of the Cunningham Funeral Home Collection. As African-American morticians in Ocala from the 1950s through the 1970s, the brothers and their business document a colorful, professional life that has become a quilt of southern history.
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. The dLOC partner institutions are the core of dLOC. dLOC partners retain all rights to their materials and provide access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
Subject files created by Howard Jay Friedman during his service with the Florida Department of Education, primarily news clippings pertaining to public education in Florida.
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Records of the Gainesville Women for Equal Rights including correspondence, meeting minutes, and newsletters.
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Documents collected by James David Glunt for his dissertation, primarily relating to Florida history in the second Spanish period (1784-1821) and territorial period (1821-1845), particularly plantation slavery.
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James Haskins (1941-2005) was a prolific author of more than 100 published books, mostly of African American nonfiction and biography for children and adolescent readers. Haskins was also a Professor of English at the University of Florida.
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The Historic St. Augustine collection contains primary source material including historic interpretation notes, architectural sketches, drawings, archaeological field reports, maps and photographs related to properties in the historic district.
Correspondence, newspaper clippings, articles, manuscripts, photographs, and miscellaneous personal papers of author, Zora Neale Hurston.
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Records of the jurisdiction of Jérémie in Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) notarized by more than thirty notaries who operated both in Jérémie and in outlying areas. Also includes records of the civil administration, documents registered with the greffier (registrar), and a small number of ecclesiastical records.
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The collection documents the life and career of African American educator, A. Quinn Jones, his wife Frederica Jones, and the African American community in Gainesville, Florida, concentrating on Lincoln High School and the Greater Bethel AME Church.
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Online exhibit
Articles, manuscripts, correspondence, talks, subject files from the working papers of writer and activist Stetson Kennedy. Kennedy's long life as a writer and activist brought him to the forefront of organizations opposing the Ku Klux Klan, as well as into contact with many well-known contemporaries, including writers Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, writer and radio host Studs Terkel, and folk singers Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Author of seven books, his best-known works are Palmetto Country, The Klan Unmasked, and Southern Exposure.
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Copies of research material gathered by Steven Lawson for articles on the Groveland case and the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee (Johns Committee).
Establishing records, minutes, handbooks, reports, publications, and other organizational records belonging to the Gainesville Chapter of The Links, Incorporated.
Case files belonging to Florida Circuit Judge John A. H. Murphree concerning the 1956 Supreme Court Case Virgil Hawkins v. Board of Control regarding the admission of Virgil Hawkins, a black man, as a law student at the all white law school at the University of Florida. Murphree was appointed by the Florida Supreme Court to act as commissioner on the case and gather information for the Florida Supreme Court ruling.
Publications, correspondence, contracts, concert posters, tour itineraries, lyrics, albums, photographs, awards, instruments, clothes, and artifacts belonging to American R&B singer, guitarist, songwriter and music producer, Bo Diddley (Ellas McDaniel), who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll.
Recordings of Vodou ceremonies made by Maya Deren during her trips to Haiti. During her time in Haiti, Deren filmed 18,000 feet of Vodou rituals; she recorded and photographed many hours of Vodou ritual, and also participated in ceremonies.
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Raymond A. Mohl was a distinguished historian of modern America, who studied ethnic, social, and urban history. His areas of interest included urban planning/interstate highway construction, civil rights in Florida, and immigration in the New South. The collection is comprised of Mohl's writings, correspondence, and research materials primarily related to civil rights in Florida.
This collection consists of material used in a documentary on the bombing of Harry T. Moore's home in Mims, Florida, in December 1951. The film was entitled Freedom Never Dies: The Legacy of Harry T. Moore.
An 1816 manuscript entitled, "Observations de la Chambre de Commerce... Marseille," which deals with the commerce of Marseille, particularly with the French colonies in the Americas.
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"Observations Importantes" by anonymous sugar traders in Nantes, France, and an "Avis" written by the deputies of commerce of Brittany.
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The Rare Book Collection has a wealth of material on the African experience in the Americas. An important aspect of the collection consists of African American authors. While much attention has deservedly been given to modern writers, here are examples of the foundation upon which 20th century African American literature was built.
Correspondence, newspaper clippings and case briefings of Judge Bryan Simpson, and includes materials relating to the civil rights movement in St. Augustine.
Collection of 22 handwritten letters pertaining to potential sales of various plantations and holdings, including slaves, in St. Domingue (present-day Haiti).
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Correspondence, diaries, and other papers and relics of Winston J.T. Stephens (1820-1864)- plantation owner, militia officer, and Confederate army officer; his wife, Octavia Bryant Stephens (1841-1908); and other family members including Henry H. Bryant (1847-1930), Davis H. Bryant (1839-1913), and William A. Bryant (1837-1881). Topics include the Civil War in Florida, military service, the Battle of Olustee, plantation life, slavery, and conditions along the St. Johns River during the mid-19th century.
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Photocopies of surveillance records of racial tension in St. Augustine by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Visionaires was founded in February 1938 by eight women who sought to establish a community organization that could foster civic, cultural, and social affairs for African American women in Gainesville, Florida. The Visionaires Collection consists of minutes of their meetings, records of financial transactions, scrapbooks, photographs, and other materials that document the organization's participation in school and community activities.
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The Archive of Haitian Religion and Culture: Collaborative Research and Scholarship on Haiti and the Haitian Diaspora will create a freely accessible multimedia digital library that uses audiovisual technologies to curate, elucidate and facilitate the advanced search of the rich primary materials of a central Haitian and Haitian-American spiritual tradition in order to promote discovery and educate a broad public.
Papers and photographs related to the career of Atkins Warren, the first African American chief of police for Gainesville, Florida. Aspects of his career covered include his time with the St. Louis Police Department, with the Gainesville Police Department, and with the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service, as well as his presidency and service with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE).
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