African American and Black Diaspora Studies

The NYU Special Collections Center co-locates services for all our special collections, including the Fales Library, the Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, and the University Archives. NYU Libraries’ special collections and archives house significant resources, rare books, personal papers related to African American and Black Diaspora Studies.

The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives is one of the collecting areas in NYU Special Collections and has a focus on left politics and labor history. The collection holds rich collections of books, serials, pamphlets, archives, photographs, oral histories, and more.  

Collection Spotlight:

• Roslyn Payne Collection of Black Panther Party FBI Files
  The Roslyn Payne Collection of Black Panther Party FBI Files (1968-2010, bulk 1968-1971) contains files on the Black Panther Party (BPP) created by the FBI's Nixon-era counterintelligence program COINTELPRO. These files consist of FBI reports and memoranda documenting the bureau's use of surveillance, wiretaps, and falsified information in its campaign against BPP.

Fales Library and Special Collections comprises over 350,000 volumes of books and other printed materials; more than 11,000 linear feet of archives, and over 100,000 individual and unique media elements. The Fales materials complement the collection policies of the Libraries by supplying rare or fine editions of text and original copies of media, or by prospectively collecting in areas of historical and cultural interest.

Collection Spotlight:

• Alva Rogers Papers

  Alva Rogers (born 1959) is an artist, playwright, vocalist, actress, and songwriter. Best known for her role as Eula Peazant in the 1991 film Daughters of the Dust, Rogers has been involved in numerous creative endeavors throughout her career. This collection contains materials pertaining to her artistic work such as scripts, sheet music, show programs, and recordings, as well as personal material including journals, letters, and photographs.

The New York University Archives serve as the final repository for the historical records of NYU. Its primary purpose is to document the history of the University and to provide source material for administrators, faculty, students, alumni, and other members of the University community, as well as scholars, authors, and other interested persons who seek to evaluate the impact of the University’s activities on the history of American social, cultural, and intellectual development.

Collection Spotlight:

• Records of the Institute of African American Affairs

  Founded in 1969, the Institute of African American Affairs (IAAA) at New York University's mission is to research, document, and celebrate the cultural and intellectual production of Africa and its diaspora in the Atlantic world and beyond with a commitment to the study of Blacks in modernity through concentrations in Pan-Africanism and Black Urban Studies. Included in these records are conference and event materials in paper and computer files, and audiovisual recordings of these events.