The Atlanta Urban League (AUL) was established in 1920 as an affiliate of the National Urban League. The AUL served as an organization dedicated to addressing the social and economic concerns of African Americans in the city of Atlanta. The AUL worked to address housing discrimination, inadequate unemployment, improve health services, and promote voting rights. The digitized collection focuses on the leadership of Grace Towns Hamilton, executive director of AUL from 1943-1961. Under her leadership the AUL waged intensive campaigns for advancement of education, health care, housing, and voting rights for African Americans. The AUL worked with the League of Women Voters, the National Council of Women, the Southern Regional Council, and more to promote the enfranchisement of Black women and voter education.
The Voter Education Project (VEP) began in 1962 as part of the Southern Regional Council. Initially VEP granted funds to civil rights organizations to support voter education, voter registration drives, and voting-related research. In 1964, Vernon Jordan, the second executive director of the VEP, expanded the programs goals to include citizenship training, voter education, and leadership training in the southern United States, while continuing to provide funds to independent voter and civil rights groups, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the League of Women Voters. The VEP’s work with the League of Women Voters is highlighted in the materials below. In 1971, VEP under the leadership of John Lewis, became an independent organization and functioned as a research center and became known as an authoritative source for statistics on southern elections and voter registration in general. Lewis also forged the VEP into an activist organization, launching Voter Mobilization Tours with Georgia state legislator and civil rights advocate Julian Bond.
In 1937, a then LeMoyne College professor named Hugh M. Gloster (later a President of Morehouse College), through correspondence with Gladstone Lewis Chandler, a colleague at Morehouse College, formed an association to increase English proficiency in their respective colleges. In 1937, eight men and women met at LeMoyne and formed the Association of Teachers of English in Negro Colleges (ATENC). In 1941, the Association broadened its objective to formally include the teaching of literature and foreign language, and changed its name to the Association of Teachers of Languages in Negro Colleges (ATLNC). In 1949, the ATLNC officially became the College Language Association (CLA). Since its inception, the CLA developed its constitution, has held annual meetings at host institutions, published a variety of publications - "The News-Bulletin", "Bulletin of the CLA", "CLA Bulletin", "CLA Journal", "CLA Newsletter" and "CLA Notes". The CLA continued building upon their objectives stated in the 1941 Constitution: 1) improving the study and teaching of language skills, 2) cultivating the appreciation of literature, and 3) sharing each other's productive interest to the group as represented in the collection. The records of the College Language Association include administrative correspondence, bibliographies, minutes, reports, financial statements, presentations, presidential addresses, press releases, programs, lists, constitutions, publications, literary submissions, photographs and memorabilia preserving one of America's largest, long-standing African American academic organizations.
The Southern Regional Council is a reform-oriented organization created in 1944 with its roots in the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. The organization was founded to help avoid racial violence and promote racial equality in the Southern United States. The collection includes newsletters, memos, correspondence, reports, programs, statements, and pamphlets from various organizations, such as the League of Women Voters, the National Council of Negro Women, and the National Women’s Committee for Civil Rights.
Founded in 1942 by African American businessman John H. Johnson, the Johnson Publishing Company, Inc. published Ebony and Jet magazines, as well as other publications. This collection contains newspapers clippings, press releases, and more used as research for the various publications. The collection includes newspaper clippings on various prominent African American women, such Daisy Bates, Mary McLeod Bethune, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dorothy Height, Mary Church Terrell, Sojourner Truth, Diane Nash, Rosa Parks, and Pauli Murray. It also contains newspaper clippings and press releases on various African American organizations, such as the League of Women Voters, the National Council of Negro Women, and the National Women’s Committee for Civil Rights.
The Bacote papers document an important period in the history of Atlanta, and of Atlanta University. The activities of one very prominent scholar and community leader help provide an important piece of the history of the university and its community.
The Asa G. Hilliard, III papers span the years between 1933 and 2007. The bulk of the collection dates from 1971 to 2007. The collection includes organizational files from organizations of which Hilliard was a member, subject files on topics of interest, records from his work at both San Francisco State University and Georgia State University, files related to his speaking engagements, photographs and videos, and manuscripts of articles, books, speeches and reports. The collection also contains some materials related to trials in which Hilliard served as an expert witness. Of note are the files related to the Larry P. V. Wilson Riles case from the late 1970s, photographs of the ceremony during which Hilliard became Nana Baffour and the slides from Hilliard's presentation "Free Your Mind! Return to the Source.
The purpose of the Cascade Oral History Project, supported by the City of Atlanta, is to gather and preserve information about this vibrant Atlanta neighborhood and its changes over time. The oral history interviews are used to provide elements of history that are often not apparent in other documents. When used with other research materials, the oral histories help to provide an enriched view of history. These oral histories complement the records and artifacts in the Archives for research on Atlanta, and are invaluable to the larger research community. The Cascade Oral History Project was conducted by the Atlanta Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), a 501(c)3 organization. Founded in 1915 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the mission of ASALH is to promote, research, preserve, interpret and disseminate information about Black like, history and culture to the global community. The Atlanta Branch, established in 2015 at the Centennial Conference, continues this legacy with the motto of "Promoting the Study of Black History: Bridging the Gap Between University and Youth." The Atlanta Branch is dedicated to collecting, preserving and making available the history of Atlanta. Email asalhatlantabranch@gmail.com. The Archives for the Atlanta Branch of ASALH, housed at the Archives Research Center, Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, 111 James P. Brawley Drive, Atlanta, GA 30314, will continue to be used in years to come by students, scholars, activists, and other researchers.
Nora Ethel Floyd (1893-1969) was born in Georgia in 1893 and attended Atlanta University in from around 1911-1913. She married John Rosamond Johnson, the brother of James Weldon Johnson (a founder of the NAACP), in 1913. John Rosamond Johnson was a renowned composer, known for writing "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (1900), which became known as the The Negro National Anthem. After marrying, the couple moved to New York City in 1914, where John was the director of the Music Settlement School for Colored People. The photographs in this collection feature groups of students and adults from the Atlanta University and Morris Brown College participating in the football game festivities. Other images include unidentified individuals, female students from Atlanta University, Eugene Dibble, and the marching band.
