Institution Type: Archive, Community Service Organization, Research Center/Institution, Study Center

Archives and Collections

Description:
The Western States Black Research and Educational Center was founded in 1976. The materials in its collection relate to the African American experience in the United States and abroad. The holdings span a range of scholarly interests and are particularly strong in the areas of children’s literature, the pre-Civil War period, African Americans in the early American West, autobiography, the arts, and poetry. Comprising more than twelve thousand volumes and rare papers written by and about African Americans, the collection is the most extensive accumulation of its kind in the western United States. It constitutes a unique scholarly reserve that chronicles, validates, and expresses the history of African American life and letters between 1790 and the present. The center’s collection includes a variety of rare, out-of-print, and historical books, films, audio recordings, photographs, and articles on African Americans and Los Angeles.

Regions Covered: Africa, Jamaica

Type of Materials: Audio Recordings, Books, Cultural Artifacts, Materials & Objects, Films/Videos/Moving Images, Institutional Publications, Manuscripts, Official Records, Photographs, Scripts

Time Periods: 1848-1899, 1900-1920, 1921-1949, 1950-1963, 1964-1980, 1981-Present

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Sectors of the Population: African Descent

Management

Catalog System: Titles, authors. (All materials are reference only and cannot be checked out)
Repository/Depository: Yes
Loan To Others: Yes
Exhibited: Yes
Makes Purchases: Yes
Formalized Purchases: Yes
Outreach: Brochures/Flyers/Pamphlets, Newsletter, Radio/TV/Video