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Archival Collections at AAMLO

AAMLO

Archival Collections

AAMLO's archival collection is a unique resource on the history of African Americans in Northern California and the Bay Area.

Use this site to explore descriptions, finding aids, inventories and digitized content from archives held by the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO).

Finding aids are available in the Online Archive of California, opens a new window and digitized items in Calisphere, opens a new window.

AAMLO's Archives has compiled research guides on the following topics to assist new researchers with finding primary and secondary sources. They are designed to serve entry level research and for researchers preparing to visit the archives.

AAMLO Study Guides - Alphabetical Index

Quick Links

The archive includes over 160 collections documenting prominent:

  • families
  • pioneers
  • churches
  • social and political organizations

AAMLO's oral history collection includes interviews with:

  • local civil rights activists
  • educators
  • writers
  • musicians
  • the Eternal Voices video library, containing more than 80 years of African American East Bay history

The microfilm collection includes:

  • newspapers such as Freedom's Journal, The Liberator, The People's Voice, Muhammad Speaks, and The Colored American Magazine
  • WPA slave narratives from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee
  • FBI Investigation Files on Marcus Garvey, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, Elijah Muhammad, and W.E.B. DuBois
  • Military enlistment records of African Americans serving in the armed forces
  • California census records, 1910-1930

and others.

Visit AAMLO

659 14th Street
Oakland
(510) 637-0200
aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org

Hours

Monday: 10:00am to 5:30pm

Tuesday: 10:00am to 5:30pm

Wednesday: 10:00am to 5:30pm

Thursday: 10:00am to 5:30pm

Friday: 12:00pm to 5:30pm

Saturday: 10:00am to 5:30pm

Archival Collections at AAMLO

Robertha J. Wells holding baby
Archival Collection

Wells (Robertha J.) Papers

The Robertha J. Wells Papers include education material, ephemera, and photographs documenting Robertha J. Wells, and the Wells family.
Archival Collection

Phyllis Wheatley Club of the East Bay Records

The Phyllis Wheatley Club of the East Bay Collection includes administrative records, correspondence, event invitations and programs.
Interview with Bobby Seale for United Nations Television International Zone
Archival Collection

Black Feminism

Historical material at AAMLO related to Black Feminism and the liberation of Black women.
Archival Collection

AAMLO on the Internet Archive

The African American Museum and Library at Oakland digital collection contains audiovisual material from the 1940s to the 2000s.
Archival Collection

Wyatt (Faricita Hall) Papers

Correspondence, poetry manuscripts, photographs, awards, and guest books that document the life of Faricita Hall Wyatt (1912-1993).
Free the Black Panthers protest march Oakland, California
Archival Collection

Williams (Henry) Jr. Film Collection

Films and reel-to-reel audiotapes mostly documenting the Black Panther Party and student and union protest movements of the late 1960s.
Robertha J. Wells holding baby
Archival Collection

Wells (Robertha J.) Papers

Documenting Robertha J. Wells, Earle Keikikane and the Wells family.
Lowell Fulson at Eli's Mile High Club, circa 1980s
Archival Collection

Twomey (Michael) Music Collection

Live music recordings of various jazz and blues musicians in clubs and concert venues around the San Francisco Bay Area between 1971-1996.
Archival Collection

Schaupp (Edward E.) Papers

Artifacts, ephemera, and photographs mostly related to the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
George Vaughns (left) standing with an unidentified man in front of a waterfall, circa 1950s
Archival Collection

Ruffin (Goldie Byrd) Collection

Goldie Byrd Ruffin was a long-time resident of Oakland California with connections to African American political organizations.
Eudora Proctor in dance outfit standing next to two men and a boy, caption: 'Oakland Calif. For studio advertisement' [ 095 ] 1949
Archival Collection

Proctor (Eudora C.) Papers

Performer and dance instructor Eudora “Dodo” Proctor (1917-1993) was born on September 29, 1917.
Portrait of Mercedes Simms Martin, mother of Jean M. Martin Pinder,
Archival Collection

Pinder (Jean M. Martin) Papers

Jean M. Martin Pinder (1916-2014) was among the first African American women to graduate from the Yale School of Public Health.
Homeless protest demontstration
Archival Collection

Pearman (Reginald) Photograph Collection

Photographic prints and negatives taken by Pearman when he worked as a photojournalist in the 1980s for the Oakland Tribune newspaper.
Arthur Page stealing third base in baseball game between the Pointers and Marines
Archival Collection

Page (Arthur R.) Collection

Arthur R. Page was one of the first African American baseball players to play on integrated baseball clubs in the United States Navy.
Portrait of George Newkirk
Archival Collection

Newkirk (George L.) Papers

Newkirk served as the Director of Labor Relations and Management Development at the San Francisco Municipal Railway between 1985-1993.
Mount Olive Baptist Church Sunday bulletin
Archival Collection

Mount Olive Baptist Church scrapbook

The Mount Olive Baptist Church was founded in Hayward, California, by Rev. George Johnson Jr. on February 11, 1963.
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