Our holdings
Publications by and about the Black Panther Party. 100+ items.
How to find
Use the MSU Library Catalog Advanced Search.
Organizations
Search by subject
Only a small percentage of the actual number of civil rights abuses received national attention; many only received local attention. We have rare copies of pamphlets and newsletters concerning lesser known cases:
Our holdings
MSU's Cookbook Collection (25,000 volumes) is strong in contemporary cooking of the Americas, African American cooking, Caribbean and Latin American cooking, and the influence of West African food and diet on the Americas.
We have more than 200 African American cookbooks published since 1960.
Unlike the earlier time periods, you can safely assume that a book on African American cooking written after the civil rights movement is by an African American author.
How to find
Search the MSU library catalog.
(Note that your results will include a few recent reprints of older works.)
Our holdings
We have scripts from about 160 Hollywood films. The bulk are from the years 1937 to 1996, with a few more recent examples.
How to find
(Be sure to limit to Special Collections. Otherwise, this heading will also retrieve about 600 titles from the circulating collection on the topic of screenwriting -- rather than actual scripts.)
The Broadside Press was founded in Detroit in 1965 by Dudley Randall. It was instrumental in bringing many Black poets to national attention.
Our holdings
We have about 100 items issued by the press, many of which are actual broadsides. (This term means poetry or prose printed on a single sheet, so it can be framed or posted.)
How to find
Search the MSU library catalog.
The Third World Press was founded in Chicago in 1967 by Haki R. Madhubuti, Carolyn Rodgers, and Johari Amini. It is now the largest Black-owned publisher in the U.S.
Our holdings
The majority of our holdings are in Main, with about 25 early titles in Special Collections.
How to find
Search the MSU library catalog.
Keyword search "third world press" (use quotation marks to get the phrase instead of the separate words)
In addition to strong holdings of the Broadside Press and Third World Press (described above), we have scattered holdings of several other publications of the Black Arts movement.
Many authors, critics, and theater professionals were associated with the Black Arts movement. The list below is from Left of the Color Line: Race, Radicalism, and Twentieth-Century Literature of the United States. Links are provide for authors whose work we have in Special Collections.
The Institute of Positive Education was founded in Chicago in 1969 and provides African-centered learning for grades K-8. MSU has 11 papers published by the IPE on a variety of social and cultural topics.
American Black Journal (formerly Detroit Black Journal) began broadcasting in 1968. The weekly tv program discusses African American history, culture, and current affairs.
Our archive has files on individual broadcasts between 1976 and 1994, research files used for topic selection and production, correspondence and business files. 22 boxes of material.
Our holdings
About 225 examples of sheet music for popular songs from 1850 to 1945.
How to find
Unlike the commercial recipe booklets, ethnic stereotypes were not specifically tagged in this collection, but they are evident from many of the titles and first lines given in the catalog record.
Use the MSU library catalog advanced search.
Some of the items you find will be songs performed by popular Black performers like Duke Ellington or sheet music for African American spirituals like Go Down, Moses. However, you'll be able to easily pick out titles with racist content.
Our holdings
Within our collection of about 600 Hollywood film scripts, about 50 from the years 1940-1985 were cataloged with "African Americans" as a subject heading. That means the film is in some way about African Americans, but the majority are by white screenwriters. Do they demonstrate the same ethnic stereotypes seen in popular songs and recipe pamphlets?
How to find
Presses
We have significant holdings from The Broadside Press (Detroit) and the Third World Press (Chicago) which were instrumental in bringing many Black writers to national attention.
Search the MSU library catalog.
Other publications
In addition to the Midwest-based Broadside Press and Third World Press, we have scattered holdings of several other prominent magazines of the Black Arts movement.
Search MSU library catalog.
Prominent artists and critics from the Black Arts Movement
Author search will retrieve items by these individuals. Subject search will retrieve items about these individuals.
List from Left of the Color Line: Race, Radicalism, and Twentieth-Century Literature of the United States, edited by Bill V. Mullen and James Smethurst. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003) Find at MSU