Race and Diversity in America

This multidisciplinary collection includes books, magazines, photographs, manuscripts, sheet music, postcards, record albums, and artifacts of the African experience in the United States, Latin America, Caribbean, and Africa, dating from 1632 to the present.

This collection consists of postcards, historical advertisements, and photographs, approximately half of which were composed as humorous caricatures and are now primarily offensive stereotypes of rural African Americans. Other materials in the collection feature positive images primarily of noted African American cultural leaders and athletes .

The Josephine Baker Collection contains a selection of publicity materials, programs, photographs, autographs, and recordings, as well as materials that reflect her cultural impact.

The Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection is one of the leading research centers in the nation for the study of African American history and culture. It also houses materials pertaining to the Black experience around the globe. Charles L. Blockson, a historian, bibliophile and author, donated the core collection to Temple University in 1984. Located in Sullivan Hall on the Main Campus of Temple University, this Collection houses over seven hundred thousand items in all formats, including rare and contemporary books, archives and manuscripts, periodicals, newspapers, photographs, broadsides, posters, sheet music pieces, and maps.

The HistoryMakers is the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive. A 501(c)(3) non-profit educational institution, the organization is committed to preserving, developing and providing easy access to an internationally recognized archival collection of thousands of African American video oral histories.

With over 16,000 records and counting, this collection provides a voice to those silenced by centuries of oppression - their experiences bundled in administrative, estate, property, and court records stored in courthouses, attics, basements, and state agencies. They include freedom suits, petitions to remain, coroners' inquisitions, and criminal suits.