Collections in Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division

All-American News was the first newsreel made specifically for African American audiences. During World War II, filmmaker William D. Alexander (1916 - November 19, 1991) and journalist Claude Barnett (September 16, 1889 - August 2, 1967) filmed and produced more than 250 newsreels with veteran producer Emmanuel M. Glucksman for the Office of War Information. While intended to rally support for the war among Black communities, Alexander and Barnett's work was deeply influenced by the "Double Victory" campaign led by African American newspapers, which lobbied for victory against fascism abroad and racial segregation at home. Each newsreel opened with a voiceover declaring, "All-American News brings you our people's contributions to America and freedom," and depicted Black participation in the war effort nationally and internationally. The All-American News collection consists of 39 video recordings of All-American News productions that are arranged in chronological order. The newsreel titles are transcribed from original collection documentation. The segment titles, outlined in each item's content notes, are transcribed from each reel. Segment subjects, names, and dates have been verified with historical newspapers when possible. Note that the newsreels' reel or episode numbers may differ from their chronological order. less

A Great Day in Harlem is an Oscar-nominated 1994 documentary directed by Jean Bach (1918 - 2013), a press agent, radio producer, jazz aficionado, and fixture of New York's jazz scene. The collection consists of sixty-four video recordings, which are the interviews conducted for the documentary from 1989 to 1996. less

The Léon Gontran Damas Recorded Sound Collection consists primarily of noncommercial recordings of radio broadcasts made during his travels to Africa, France, and the United States etc.; as well as one commercial LP audio recording, "Poesie de la Negritude" by Leon G. Damas. The noncommercial material consists of interviews with Damas and others; poetry readings, and lectures by Damas and various other artists; drum music and traditional music from French Guinea and Sub-Saharan Africa. The collection includes the works of Guy Tirolien, Bernard Dadie, Jacques Rabemananjara, Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Bob Stokes, Eugene Miller, Jayne Cortez and others. less

Producer, educator, and archivist Martha Diaz formed the Hip-Hop Education Center (HHEC) to formalize and promote hip-hop based education. Its primary holdings are from the Hip-Hop Odyssey (H2O) International Film Festival, which Diaz founded in 2002 to showcase hip-hop films, music videos, public service announcements, and related media from around the world for artists, educators, and the broader community around its home at the Bronx Museum of the Arts. In 2007, H2O shifted from producing festivals to collaborating with Third World Newsreel on H2ONewsreel, a full-service media development and distribution organization for hip-hop media makers. The Hip-Hop Education Center collection brings all of these related works under one umbrella. The Hip-Hop Education Center collection consists of 446 moving image works and forty-one sound recordings created from 1979 to 2014. These works have been included in Hip-Hop Odyssey International Film Festivals, or created or presented with the assistance of H2ONewsreel. less

Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7th, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Harlem born and raised, Rollins is considered among the players to have defined the instrument through his prolific practicing, performing and recording over a career that spans sixty decades and more than eighty albums. Created and collected by Sonny Rollins, the 2475 item audio and moving collection includes interviews, profiles, live performances, practice sessions and studio recordings. The holdings are available in the Moving Image and Recorded Sound (MIRS) Division. less

Their Children Learned was a Black History Month special that aired over the course of three nightly news broadcasts on New York City's WNBC-TV in 1983. The Their Children Learned WNBC Black History Special collection consists of forty-two video recordings which include the three original broadcast segments, as well as unedited interviews, outtakes, and archival footage and audio used in the special. less