The African American Museum and Library at Oakland is dedicated to the discovery, preservation, interpretation and sharing of historical and cultural experiences of African Americans in California and the West for present and future generations.
The African American Museum and Library at Oakland’s archival collection is a unique resource on the history of African Americans in Northern California and the Bay Area. The archive includes over 160 collections documenting prominent families, pioneers, churches, social and political organizations. Freedom's Journal, the Liberator, California Voice, Sun Reporter, Muhammed Speaks, and the Black Panther newspapers are available on microfilm. Using the African American Museum and Library at Oakland’s oral history collection researchers can listen to interviews with local civil rights activists, educators, writers, and musicians. The African American Museum and Library at Oakland is home to the Eternal Voices video library containing more than 80 years of African American East Bay history and Susheel Bibb's Meet Mary Pleasant DVD (scholarly interviews, key issues and documents). The microfilm collection includes primary research information on African American enslavement, military service, California census records 1910-1930, Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association, W.E.B. Dubois, Benjamin Banneker, Mary Church Terrell, Paul Robeson and others.
The African American Museum and Library at Oakland’s digital collection at California Revealed consists of moving images and audio recordings from the 1940s to the 2000s. These recordings include an oral history collection containing recent interviews with African-American residents of Oakland, interviews with legendary blues musicians Brownie McGhee and Jesse Fuller, home movies recorded by Oakland's Collier family, original episodes of the Jay Peyton Show, and many recordings related to the political work of former Oakland mayor and congressman Ron Dellums.
