BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY
U of M has submitted 19 collections to date from two libraries. The majority of collections come from the Bentley Historical Library and provide an extremely detailed picture of black student life at U of M from the late 60’s to today. Of note is the #BBUM (Being Black at UM) Twitter Archive, a Twitter campaign launched by the university’s Black Student Union in 2013. Other highlights include materials from the Black Action Movement, Academics for Affirmative Action and Social Justice records, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies records, records of the Black Student Union, and the NAACP/ University of Michigan Chapter collection.
Additional contributions include:
- The Jay Cassidy Photo Collection of the student protest movement of the late 1960’s
- The Austin McCoy Papers, an alumnus who was a prominent campus activist and leader on issues of racial, economic, and social injustice during his doctoral studies at UM
- Records of the Islamophobia Working Group, a group which works to identify strategies for creating a safe and inclusive community for Muslims, those who identify as Middle Eastern and North African (MENA), and all community members impacted by Islamophobia
- United Asian American Organizations records, an umbrella organization of seven University of Michigan Asian and Pacific student organizations
- Latin American Solidarity Committee records, a group of University of Michigan students and other Ann Arbor, Michigan, residents formed to support progressive causes in Latin America and monitor U.S. involvement and government policies in Latin America
- Madison Foster papers, who was a student at UM, an active member of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW) and the Black Action Movement (BAM) strike at the University
- Sandra Silberstein papers, a student at UM and the first president of the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) in the year that it became the bargaining unit for graduate students.
- Jessica Curtin collection, which documents debates surrounding affirmative action and includes BAMN and DAAP organizational materials
Primary contact: Aprille McKay (bio)
Special Collections library at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library
- In addition to the Bentley Library materials, the Special Collections Library at the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library has contributed materials from the Joseph A. Labadie Collection, a hallmark collection documenting the history of social protest movements and marginalized political communities from the 19th century to the present. The collection is one of the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive collections of its kind, with materials on anarchism, anti-colonialist movements, antiwar and pacifist movements, atheism and free thought, civil liberties and civil rights, ecology, labor and workers’ rights, feminism, LGBTQ movements, prisons and prisoners, the New Left, the Spanish Civil War, and youth and student protest.
Primary contact: Julie Herrada (bio)
Featured Collection
Image: BAMN “Breaking the Silence” Rally, October 2005
Collection: Department of Afroamerican and African Studies Records
Dates: 1966-2010
Description: This record group pertains to the University of Michigan Department of Afroamerican and African Studies and to campus, regional, and national organizations devoted to political and civil rights causes from the 1960s to the 1990s. The collection includes print documents, photographs, and audio-visual material that document racial harassment incidents, political protests, scholarly conferences and symposia, MLK Day celebrations and black student life on the U-M campus. There are also materials about the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the anti-apartheid and divestment movements of the 1980s. Originally a Center, the unit was formally recognized as a department of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts in 2011.