Research Guides: Civil Rights Movement: Personal Papers

What can I find in Personal Papers?

Collections of papers, such as those listed here, frequently include items such as personal and professional correspondence, newspaper clippings, financial records, memos, and diaries.

Consider how the intended audience of an item may change the message. A personal diary may include opinions not shared in a public speech.

Personal Papers

Presented in chronological order based on earliest documented activities. Unless otherwise indicated, all microfilm materials are in the lower level of Strozier Library.

W.E.B. Du Bois papers, 1877-1963
Call Number: Strozier Micromaterials, Film 8689
Guide: Micr Z 6616 .D8 M35
Sociologist and civil rights activist, Du Bois was a founder of the NAACP and is known for his seminar work, The Souls of Black Folk in which he states "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line."
Horace Mann Bond papers, 1904-1972
Call Number: Strozier Micromaterials, Film 9244
Guide: Micr E 185.97 .G85 1989
Educator and sociologist who became a leader at several historically black colleges and is known for his critique of intelligence testing.
Claude A. Barnett papers, 1918-1967
Call Number: Online: Part of History Vault (ProQuest)
Founder of the Associated Negro Press (ANP), a news service distributing articles to African-American and African newspapers.
Also available in microfilm: Strozier Micromaterials, Film 9111.
Guide: Micr PN 4841 .A73 S9 1986
Mary McLeod Bethune papers, 1923-1942
Call Number: Online: Part of History Vault (ProQuest)
Educator and founder of Bethune-Cookman College.
Includes correspondence, diary (1927) of a European trip, speeches, writings, invitations, programs, clippings, photographs, and other papers.
Also available on microfilm: Strozier Micromaterials, Film 5349
John L. LeFlore papers, 1926-1976
Call Number: Strozier Micromaterials, Film 9619
Guide: Micr E 185.97 .L44 B35 1996 and online (opens PDF).
Civil rights leader and politician in Mobile, Alabama who led the local chapter of the NAACP, founded the Non-Partisan Voting League (NPVL) and was elected to the state house in 1974.
William Hastie papers, c.1930-1976
Call Number: FSU Law Library, Film 194
Guide: FSU Law Library, Micr Law KF 213 H34 1987
Law professor and civil rights advocate, Hastie was the first African-American to serve as a federal judge and as a federal appellate judge.
Claude Pepper Papers
Call Number: Claude Pepper Library, 03/MSS 1979-01
Containing over two million pages, the Claude Pepper Papers includes his official correspondence, speeches, legislative, committee, and campaign files. In addition, there are files of his personal correspondence, speeches, photographs, recordings, and memorabilia. Portions of the collection include files related to the Civil Rights Acts, correspondence with constituents about the Civil Rights Bill of 1963, and Audio Recordings of Pepper’s speeches on civil rights legislation. Portions of the Claude Pepper Collection are available digitally.
W. May Walker Papers
Call Number: Special Collections, Strozier Library, 03/MSS 1976-012
The papers of Judge W. May Walker cover all aspects of his legal career, and include correspondence, committee papers, legislative papers, rulings and opinions, as well as papers concerning particular cases. Judge Walker served as County Judge of Leon County and on the bench of the 2nd Judicial Circuit. Most of the papers in the collection cover the 1940s until his death, September 16, 1974. The Honorable Judge presided over many important cases covering such topics as civil rights, rape, and capital punishment. Included in the collection are papers belonging to his father, Nat R. Walker.
Martin Luther King, Jr., papers by edited by Clayborne Carson
Call Number: Strozier Library, 3rd Floor, E185.97.K5 A2 1992
ISBN: 0520079507
An ongoing project to publish a definitive fourteen-volume edition of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr.,a comprehensive collection of King's most significant correspondence, sermons, speeches, published writings, and unpublished manuscripts.
Volumes 1 - 7 have been published.
The materials are in print, but the King Center and Stanford University also support an online search feature.
Joseph Tobias Papers, 1955-1960
Call Number: Special Collections, Strozier Library, 01/MSS 2017-002
Professional papers, case files, and collected publications of Joseph Tobias, attorney based in Chicago, Illinois, regarding his representation of Mamie Till-Mobley from 1955 to 1960. Documents include case files for Mamie Bradley v. Cowles Magazines, Inc., Vernon C. Meyers, Gardner Cowles, and William Bradford Huie; correspondence on Till-Mobley's behalf with the NAACP and motion picture studios; and subject files kept by Tobias on Till-Mobley during and after his employment by her. Portions of the Joseph Tobias Papers are available digitally.
Kent Spriggs Papers, 1963-1976
Call Number: Special Collections, Strozier Library, 01/MSS 2004-04
The P. Kent Spriggs Papers contain material related to two early civil rights cases prosecuted by Spriggs: the Quincy Five case and Steele et al. v. Leon County Board of Public Instruction. Spriggs graduated from New York University School of Law in 1965 and practiced law for more than thirty-seven years. He established Spriggs Law Firm in Tallahassee, Florida in 1971 and focused on civil rights related cases. The digitization process is underway for this collection.

Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activist, Political Activist, and Woman This link opens in a new window
Fannie Lou Hamer was a voting rights activist and civil rights leader. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, attending the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in that capacity. Her plain-spoken manner and fervent belief in the Biblical righteousness of her cause gained her a reputation as an electrifying speaker and constant activist of civil rights.
Abbreviation: flhpc
Vendor: Gale
Coverage: 1966–1978
Subjects: African-American Studies, Communication, History
Type: Historical / Primary Sources

Davis Houck Papers, 1955-2006
Call Number: Special Collections, Strozier Library, 01/MSS 2015-007
News clippings, photographs, creative and scholarly works, and government records collected by Davis Houck during research on the role of the press in the American civil rights movement, with special emphasis on the 1955 murder of Emmett Till near Money, Mississippi. Portions of the Davis Houck Papers are available digitally.