amistad research center

Marian Wright, then the young director of the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund in Jackson, Miss., made a suggestion to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. regarding a drive for jobs and justice. Later, during a staff retreat of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in November 1967, King announced the Poor People’s Campaign as “middle ground between riots on the one hand and timid supplications for justice on the other,” according to documents in The Martin Luther King

Sometimes a simple question can lead you down a rabbit hole. That’s the enjoyment of reference, your ability to learn something new while helping a patron in their own research. In this case, someone looking for a speech led to a little-known organization, the New Orleans Improvement League, whose story had a far-reaching impact on the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans. The mid-1950s saw great strides in federal de-segregation, but not everyone agreed with it. For those wh

The records of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons of Louisiana has become one of the Center’s most popular collections despite it being a relatively new holding. The records were donated in 2008 by the Prince Hall Masons lodge in Baton Rouge, and the collection was so large that it took two years for archivists to arrange, describe, and organize it. The records serve as a rich source of primary documentation about the history of African Amer

“Dear fanny lou, we have gust studied some fammouise black leaders it’s hard to explain about how I feel but there [is] one thing I can write that’s true in my heart I wish I could give you as much freedom as I could give It’s gust not fair to treet blacks so cruelly…if I could give you eneything I’d give you freedom so free as the wind the birds and trees and the sky…I care for you. Love, Laura.” Laura’s letter is one of many received by civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hame

An institution such as the Amistad Research Center is comprised of many collections. Yet, as is often the case, particular collections become cornerstones of interest by a wide variety of researchers. Such is the case with the personal papers of civil rights attorney Alexander Pierre (A.P.) Tureaud. In the 42 years since their donation to Amistad, the A.P. Tureaud papers have remained one of the most frequently consulted collections at the Center. As part of our 50 Years/50 C