NAACP Papers

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) papers collection contains internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country. It charts the NAACP’s work and delivers a first-hand view into crucial issues: lynching, school desegregation, and discrimination in the military, the criminal justice system, employment, and housing, among others. National office records provide insight into NAACP’s leaders and their relationships with the U.S. Congress, with presidents from Taft to Nixon, and with other civil rights organizations. The collection also documents the full range of civil rights tactics in the 1950s and 1960s, revealing a first-hand look at the important roles grassroots leaders and women played in the civil rights movement. Documents from local NAACP branches come from all 50 states and give additional depth and insight.

The library subscribes to the following modules:
NAACP Papers: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files;
NAACP Papers: Branch Department, Branch Files and Youth Department Files;
NAACP Papers: Special Subjects;
NAACP Papers: The NAACP’s Major Campaigns--Legal Department Files;
NAACP Papers: The NAACP’s Major Campaigns—Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses