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Papers of the NAACP. Part 1. Meetings of the Board of Directors, Records of Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and Special Reports, 1909-1950. Supplements. 1951-1955, 1956-1960, 1961-1965. Frederick, Md. : University Publications of America, 1982 -

Call number: Microfilm A183 Part 1, Supplements, 1909-1960

Call number: Microfilm A351 Part 1, Supplement, 1961-1965

Guide: Papers of the NAACP. Part 1, Meetings of the Board of Directors, Records of Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and Special Reports
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt. 1

Note: 28, 12, 12, 12, reels 35 mm. microfilm

Description: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in 1910 to promote the legal and political rights of Afro-Americans. Early efforts focused on anti-lynching legislation. Since the Second World War, the emphasis has been on legislation and litigation for voting rights and housing and school desegregation.

The Papers of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People document the Association's structure, activities and development and provide information on every aspect of American race relations. The collection contains materials the dating from 1909 to the 1960s and is filmed from materials in the Library of Congress and certain private collections.

Part 1 includes Meetings of the Board of Directors, records of annual conferences, major speeches, and special reports, 1909-1950. The papers document the evolution NAACP polices during the organizations first forty years. Over 15,000 pages of correspondence demonstrate the NAACP's work for civil rights. Also included are special reports by the Association's officers on the Ku Klux Klan, public employment descrimination, portrayal of African Americans in films, economic opportunity, African American crime vicitims, church, and civil rights.

The 1951-1955 supplement covers the litigation against segregation that resulted in the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the Supreme Court.

The 1956-1960 supplement document the NAACP's activities during a period of increasing violence in the Southern States. The papers contain reports from local NAACP chapters on acts of intimidations, economic reprisals, and terror against advocates of any form of integration in the South. In addition, the NAACP and other civil rights organizations were involved in forcing compliance to the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling. The supplement covers the NAACP's actions in the Little Rock School desegregation case and the civil rights efforts of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and others.

The 1961-1965 supplement continues coverage of important events in the civil rights movement: Freedom Rides, sit-in campaigns, the March on Washington, the rise of Martin Luther King as a national leader, and the passing of civil rights and antipoverty legislation. During this period, the NAACP's leadership role was challenged by other more radical African American groups such as the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Nation of Islam.

The guides to the collection must be consulted since some material is not filmed in order, and in some instances, only selected material has been filmed. The guide describes each part of the collection and provides a subject index to the proceedings of the annual conferences and business meetings (reels 8-14).

Subjects: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; African Americans (20th Century); Civil Rights (20th Century); Segregation; Freedom Rides; March on Washington; Little Rock School System; King, Martin Luther; Parks, Rosa; Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee; Congress on Racial Equality; Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Nation of Islam; Southern States (20th Century)

Papers of the NAACP. Part 2. Personal Correspondence of Selected NAACP Officials, 1919-1939. Frederick, Md. : University Publications of America, 1982

Call number: Microfilm A183 pt. 2

Guide: Papers of the NAACP. Part 2. Personal Correspondence of Selected NAACP Officials, 1919-1939
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt. 2

Note: 20 reels 35 mm. microfilm

Part 2. Personal correspondence of selected NAACP officials, 1919-1939. Part 2 includes the personal correspondence of selected NAACP officials from 1919-1939. The correspondence is with friends, relatives, other civil rights groups and organizations, publishers, editors, literary correspondents, journalists, academicians, and in the case of Thurgood Marshall and Charles Houston, with clients and other lawyers.

Also included are office diaries for part of the period covered. The selected NAACP officials are: Charles H. Houston, Juanita Jackson, James Weldon Johnson, Thurgood Marshall, E. Frederick Morrow, Mary White Ovington, William Pickens, Walter White, and Roy Wilkins.

The guide to the collection (Microforms E185.5.N276A2) must be consulted since some material is not filmed in order, and in some instances, only selected material has been filmed.

Subjects: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Houston, Charles Hamilton; Jackson, Juanita; Johnson, James Weldon; Marshall, Thurgood; Everett Frederic; Ovington, Mary White; Pickens, William; White, Walter F.; Wilkins, Roy; African Americans (20th Century); Civil Rights (20th Century); Correspondence (20th Century)

Papers of the NAACP. Part 3. The Campaign for Educational Equality, 1913-1950. Series A : Legal Depatment and Central Office Records, 1913-1940. Series B : Legal Department and Central Office Files, 1940-1950. Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1986-

Call number:Microfilm A183 pt. 3 Ser. A

Call number:Microfilm A312 pt. 3 Ser. B

Guide: Papers of the NAACP. Part 3. The Campaign for Educational Equality, 1913-1950
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt. 3

Note: 43 reels 35 mm. microfilm

Part 3 concerns the legal battle to allow access to the best public education. Reproduced are files relating to the American Fund for Public Service, teacher salay cases, admission to university cases, local schools cases and general education subjects. The papers document the NAACP's attack on segregated education resulting in Brown v. Board of Education.

Subjects: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Civil Rights (20th Century); Discrimination in Education

Papers of the NAACP. Part 4. The Voting Rights Campaign, 1916-1950. Supplement : 1956-1965. Frederick, Md. : University Publications of America, c1986

Call number: Microfilm A313 pt. 4

Call number:Microfilm A340 pt. 4. Supplement 1956-1965

Guide: Papers of the NAACP. Part 4. The Voting Rights Campaign, 1916-1950
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt. 4

Note: 19 reels 35 mm. microfilm

Part 4: The Voting Rights Campaign, 1916-1950, contains the complete NAACP legal department files and subject files, as well as selected branch files, on all topics related to voting rights: white primary cases; the grandfather clause; literacy tests, registration abuses, intimidation, and violence; poll taxes and legislative apportionment in the South; and women's suffrage.

A supplement to Part 4 is also included. It documents the efforts of the NAACP to increase black voter registration after legal sanction to voting rights was granted by the Supreme Court in 1944. The devices used to stem black voting were typically obstruction by southern registrars and vigilante violence against politically assertive blacks. By the 1950s, the NAACP had determined that only massive voter registration drives would make the franchise a political reality for African Americans in the South.

This segment of Papers of the NAACP covers the top-level planning for NAACP voting rights drives and the state-by-state project files. Key correspondents from the South include Medgar Evers, C. G. Gomillion and Aaron Henry.

Guides for both parts of the collection are available and contain reel and subject indexes.

Subjects: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; African Americans (20th Century); Civil Rights (20th Century); Suffrage (20th Century); Voting (20th Century)

Papers of the NAACP. Part 5. The Campaign Against Residential Segregration, 1914-1955. Frederick, Md., University Publications of America, c1986

Call number: Microfilm A314

Guide: A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Papers of the N.A.A.C.P: Part 5. The Campaign Against Residential Segretation, 1914-1955
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt.5

Note: 23 reels 35 mm. microfilm

Subjects covered in Part 5 documents include residential segregation, racially restrictive covenants, discrimination in federal housing programs, violence against black property owners and renters, and N.A.A.C.P litigation and fundraising programs. Documents include correspondence, legal briefs, newsclippings, memorandums, reports, and copies of legislation. The documents provide information on both housing programs and race relations. The guide has a reel and frame index, case name index, and subject index. It also contains a good description of the N.A.A.C.P.'s legal strategy to fight discrimination. Selected files were filmed in their entirety, with a few exceptions noted in the guide.

Subjects: National Association of the Advancement of Colored People; African Americans (20th Century); Civil Rights (20th Century); Discrimination in Housing; Race Relations (20th Century)

Papers of the NAACP. Part 6. The Scottsboro Case, 1931-1950. Frederick, Md., University Publications of America, c1986

Call number: Microfilm A183 pt. 6

Guide: A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Papers of the NAACP. Part 6. The Scottsboro Case, 1931-1950
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt. 6

Note: 24 reels 35 mm microfilm. Originals are in the Library of Congress.

In April 1931 in Scottboro, Alabama, eight African American teenagers were convicted and sentenced to death for raping two white women. The Scottsboro Case defendents were represented by the International Labor Defense (ILD), part of the Communist Party. A series of appeals and new trials between 1931-1937 focused international attention on the case. The Supreme Court ruled in 1932 that the defendants had been denied adequate counsel. In 1933, an Alabama judge ordered a new trial because of insufficient evidence. In 1935, the Supreme Court overturned convictions of the grounds that Alabama had systematically excluded African Americans from jury service. However, the defendants were retried and five were sentenced to sentences ranging from twenty years to life.

This collection contains the complete NAACP files of this celebrated case. The collection documents the problems of African Americans in the southern judicial system and the relationship between the Communist Party and the civil rights movement headed by the NAACP.

Subjects: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Scottsboro Case; African Americans (20th Century); Civil Rights (20th Century); Rape; Patterson, Haywood; Race Relations (20th Century); Alabama (20th Century); Southern States (20th Century); International Labor Defense; Communist Party

Papers of the NAACP. Part 7. The anti-lynching campaign 1912-1955 . Frederick, MD, University Publications of America, 1987

Call number: Microfilm A334 ser. A-ser. B

Guide: A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of Papers of the NAACP. Part 7. The Anti-Lynching Campaign, 1912-1955 [in 2 volumes]:

Series A : Anti-Lynching Investigative Files, 1912-1953
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt.7 ser.A 1912-1953
Series B : Anti-Lynching Legislative and Publicity Files, 1916-1955
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt.7 ser.B 1916-1955

Note: 30, 35 microfilm reels. Originals are in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.

Part 7: The Anti-Lynching Campaign, 1912-1955 (edited by Robert L. Zangrando, professor of history at the University of Akron) offers the key NAACP national office files on the campaign against lynching and mob violence. It is divided into two series.

Series A contains the records of the Association's investigation into lynchings and race riots throughout the country and especially in the South.

Series B contains the records of the Association's sustained efforts to raise American consciousness of the specter of lynching and to enact federal anti-lynching legislation as a means of deterring the practice.

Guides for both series are available and should be consulted for a history of the material and the full content list of each series. The guides contain both reel and subject indexes

Subjects: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; African Americans (20th Century); Civil Rights (20th Century); Lynching Prevention

Papers of the NAACP. Part 8. Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System, 1910-1955. Bethesda, Md., University Publications of America, c1988

Call number: Microfilm A315, ser. A-ser. B

Guide: Papers of the NAACP. Part 8. Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System, 1910-1955
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt.8, ser A-B

Note: 49 reels 35 mm. microfilm

Part 8: Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System, 1910 - 1955 contains case files from the NAACP Legal Department that span nearly a half century and are valuable for research on constitutional law, politics, and blacks in the legal profession, as well as on abuses practiced within the criminal justice system.

Included in Part 8 are the files for all cases that the NAACP supported in the categories of crime, extradition, jury discrimination, police brutality and rape, as well as files on cases in these categories that were investigated and rejected by the legal staff.

This part of the collection is divided into two series divided by the dates of the files contained within the series. Series A covers the years 1910 to 1939 and series B continues with 1940 through 1955.

The guides available for the two series contain descriptions of the groups of records within the files as well as subject and reel indexes.

Subjects: National Association of the Advancement of Colored People; African Americans (20th Century); Civil Rights (20th Century); Discrimination in Criminal Justice Administration; Discrimination in Education

Papers of the NAACP. Part 9 : Discrimination in the U.S. Armed Forces, 1918-1955. Frederick, Md., University Publications of America, c1989

Call number: Microfilm A328 ser. A-ser. C

Guide:A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Papers of the NAACP. Part 9 : Discrimination in the U.S. Armed Forces, 1918-1955 [in 3 volumes]:

Series A : General Office Files on Armed Forces' Affairs, 1918-1955
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt.9 ser.A 1940-1955
Series B : Armed Forces' Legal Files, 1940-1950
Call number: E185.5.N275A2 pt.9 ser.B 1940-1950
Series C : The Veterans Affiars Committee, 1940-1950
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt.9 ser.C 1940-1950

Note: 18,30,12 reels 35 mm. microfilm

Part 9: Discrimination in the U.S. Armed Forces, 1918-1955, provides documents relating to blacks in the armed forces between 1918 and the early 1950s. The collection is divided into three series:

Series A, General Office Files on Armed Forces Affairs, 1918 - 1955, contains the General Office Files and focuses on the campaign to end segregation in the armed forces. The majority of the material dates from the era of the Second World War, but material is available in the series on the period prior to the war and some material dating from the First World War. The files are filmed in entirety from the original NAACP files so it is necessary to consult the guide to the series when searching for a particular subject or case.

Series B, Armed Forces Legal Files, 1940 - 1950, Deals with legal relations between African-Americans and the US Armed Forces. The files contain mostly case files arranged alphabetically by type of case (e.g. court martial) and by name of black defendant.

Series C includes the complete extant files of the Department of Veterans' Affairs. The department was created to deal with the increasing number of inquiries to the NAACP from African American veterans and service personnel. The bulk of the files deal with the work of the departments director, Jesse O. Dedmon Jr. Many of the cases found in these files are also 'continued' in the files found in series A and B of this collection.

Guides for all three series are available and should be consulted for further information as well as description of the file contents. The guides provide both reel and subject indexes for the collection.

Subjects:National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; African American Soldiers; Civil Rights (20th Century); United States Armed Forces; Race Relations (20th Century)

Papers of the NAACP. Part 10. Peonage, Labor, and the New Deal, 1913-1939. Frederick, Md. : University Publications of America, c1990

Call number: Microfilm A183 pt. 10

Guide: Papers of the NAACP. Part 10. Peonage, Labor, and the New Deal, 1913-1939
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt. 10

Note: 23 reels 35 mm. microfilm

Part 10 covers a campaign against employment discrimination of African American workers in factories, agriculture, and government employment. Because little legislation existed to protect the workers, the NAACP had to rely on petitions to labor unions, private employers, and the government. Of special note are files on federal civil service, World War I, and African American migration, labor unions, peonage, and New Deal Agencies.

Subjects: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; African Americans (20th Century); Civil Rights (20th Century); United States History New Deal (1933-1939); Peonage; Labor Unions (20th Century); World War I; Employment; Discrimination in Employment

Papers of the NAACP. Part 13. NAACP and Labor, 1940-1955. Bethesda, MD, University Publications of America, 1991

Call number: Microfilm A331

Guide:A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of the Papers of the NAACP. Part 13 : NAACP and Labor 1940-1955 [in 4 volumes]:

Series A : Subject Files on Labor Conditions and Employment discrimination, 1940-1955
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt.13 ser.A 1940-1955
Series B : Cooperation with Organized Labor, 1940-1955
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt.13 ser.B 1940-1955
Series C : Legal Department Files on Labor, 1940-1955
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt.13 ser.C 1940-1955
Supplement to Part 13 : The NAACP and Labor 1956-1965
Call number: E185.5.N276A2 pt.13 suppl.1956-1965

Note: 58 reels 35 mm. microfilm

Part 13 concerns the NAACP and labor, 1940-1955 and is divided into three series:

Series A : Subject Files on Labor Conditions and Employment Discrimination, 1940-1955, contains files arranged by industry and occupation. The files cover cases of discrimination, employment opportunities and NAACP actions on labor issues. Consisting mostly of case files, the collection helps document Association strategies and actions in with discrimination and labor conditions.

Series B : Cooperation with Organized Labor, 1940-1955 focuses on the emergence of a national lobby for civil rights, with a large segment on fair employment practices. Led by the NAACP, it was in the early 1950s that the Leadership Council on Civil Rights was formed. Series B comprises the NAACP headquarters' correspondence with its partners in the coalition for fair employment practices, memos on legislative strategies, congressional correspondence, and draft legislation generated in the course of lobbying for their common cause in Washington.

Series C : Legal Department Files on Labor, 1940-1955 documents the problems the NAACP faced in the absence of fair employment practices legislation, and the strategies assumed by the Association in order to combat work force discrimination. Here also are abundant records of a case against a railroad brotherhood, which demonstrate the impracticality of private litigation as a remedy.

A guide to the collection is available and contains both a reel and a subject index. The guide should be consulted for locating specific documents since the collection contains a great deal of material without any overlying organization.

Subjects: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; African Americans (20th Century); Labor Unions (20th Century); Employment (20th Century)

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