Black history ephemera subject files
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Arrangement: Alphabetical by topic.

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: Includes programs, brochures, essays, flyers, and other documents relating to various aspects of African-American history in Nashville and Middle Tennessee, dated from 1972 to 2009. Quantity of materials typically is one or two items for each subject. Some items are photocopies. The most abundant material documents the annual Afro-American Culture and History Conference from 1981 to 2009, and includes programs for the conference and biographical sketches of prominent and noteworthy African-Americans and Afro-American institutions in Nashville.

In the civil rights and activism category, a newspaper, The Community Bridge and Liberation Message from April 1972 provides a glimpse into community conditions for African-Americans in the early 1970s. It includes information about poverty, discrimination, housing; the death of attorney Z. Alexander Looby; development of the city of Nashville, in which blacks feel left behind, with emphasis and comparisons between conditions in North Nashville, black neighborhoods near downtown, and road repair and improvements taking place near Music Row; and brief mention of infighting within the black community.

A Gospel Arts Day program from 1988 includes information about the Fairfield Four. Other materials or subjects in the collection as a whole include: art; churches; civil rights and activism; cultural observances (such as Black History Month and others); folklore and folklife; medicine and the medical profession; music; Nashville black history; organizations; and Tennessee black history. In general, the Black History Ephemera Subject Files contain materials that are produced by, for, or about the black community in Nashville, emphasizing African-American heritage or point of view. Other materials relating to black history may be found elsewhere in the Ephemera Subjects Files under any number of broader headings, such as Biography, Churches, or Schools, to name only a few.

Cite as: [folder title or item description], Black History Ephemera Subject Files, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library

Some items may be restricted by copyright law or donor restriction.

Intentionally assembled by Special Collections Division staff, beginning at an unknown date, probably in the late 1960s, and collected on an ongoing basis.

Related materials: Items relating to African-American history may also be found in various other ephemera subject files categories, such as Biography; Churches; Schools and others.

In English

Finding aid available in repository;,folder level control,https://assets.library.nashville.org/documents/finding-aids/Special_Collections_Division_Finding_Aid_Ephemera_BlackHistory.pdf.

Process;,2005;,Linda Barnickel.

Catalog;,2012;,Linda Barnickel.

Additional accruals are expected.