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

The 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, also known as the Triple Nickels, was an all-Black airborne unit of the United States Army during World War II. The 555th Parachute Infantry Association moving image collection consists of one video recording of the unit's fiftieth anniversary commemorative ceremony in 1994. less

The Abyssinian Baptist Church Oral History Project consists of interviews with ten African American women about their recollections of the church as longtime members. Conducted by Dr. Martia G. Goodson, an American historian specializing in African American oral history, focused the interviews on the church's activities from 1940 to 1970. Many of the interviewees and their stories are included in Dr. Goodson's book Church Ladies: Untold Stories of Harlem Women in the Powell Era (2015). less

Sydenham Hospital was a healthcare facility in Harlem, which operated between 1892 and 1980. The Sydenham Hospital Protest audio collection consists of eleven audio recordings pertaining to issues of healthcare and health services in Harlem and leading up to the closure of Sydenham Hospital in 1980. less

The Bernard F. Ashe moving image collection documents the latter portion of Ashe's career as general counsel to the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), and esteemed member of the American Bar Association and American Arbitration Association, from 1989 until his retirement from NYSUT in 1996. 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

James Baldwin (1924-1987) was an African American novelist, essayist, intellectual, and activist, renowned as one of the world's most influential voices of the twentieth century. The James Baldwin audio collection consists of thirty-five audio recordings of mostly interviews and speeches given by Baldwin from the 1960s to 1980s. less

Tony Batten (circa 1935 - 1998) was a journalist who worked in radio, television, and documentary film from the 1960s through the 1990s. He made significant contributions to public affairs television with his work on programs like Black Journal, Interface, and 51st State. The Tony Batten Broadcast Journalism collection consists of fifty moving image recordings and thirty-three audio recordings. less

Howard Bennett (1911-1981) was a civil rights activist and a Harlem community leader who founded the National Citizens Committee for a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The collection consists of one audio recording of a birthday tribute to King in 1972. less

Beth Elohim Hebrew Congregation is a Black Jewish congregation in Queens, New York. The collection consists of ten audio recordings of interviews with leaders and longtime members of the Hebrew Israelite community in New York City conducted by Rabbi Sholomo Ben Levy, in addition to a sermon by Chief Rabbi Levi Ben Levy. less

The Black Filmmaker Foundation (BFF) is a nonprofit membership organization co-founded and led by filmmaker Warrington Hudlin. The Black Filmmaker Foundation collection consists of 715 moving image recordings and one sound recording created from 1971 to 2004, with the bulk of the collection created in the 1980s and 1990s. The collection includes films, demo reels, music videos, and other media produced by Black Filmmaker Foundation members and collaborators, as well as recordings of the organization's public programs. less

Robert Span Browne (1924-2004) was an economist who worked to promote Black economic development. The collection consists of four audio recordings of a 1968 conference organized in part by the National Association of Television and Radio Announcers, an organization of Black broadcasters. less

The Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM) was a Head Start program founded in 1965, serving low-income, primarily Black, preschool children. The collection consists of ten audio recordings of CDGM and other meetings dating from circa 1964 to 1971. less

Founded in 1969, the Children's Art Carnival (CAC) was a Harlem-based non-profit organization that provided free arts and educational programs for young people ages four to twenty-one, training courses for educators, and career development services for young adults. The collection consists of four audio recordings of radio interviews with Betty Blayton-Taylor, the founding director of the CAC. less

Pioneering African American writer, actress, and director Alice Childress (1916-1994) was known for her plays and her best-selling young adult novel, A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich. The collection consists of five sound recordings and one video recording documenting performances and research dating from 1959-1991. less

The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) is a nonprofit organization of Black trade union members affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO). The collection consists of seven video recordings of the 1987 annual convention that took place in St. Louis, Missouri. 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

Melvin Dixon was an American scholar, novelist, and poet. Dixon's scholarship, including translations, focused on French speaking writers such as Léopold Sédar Senghor, Geneviève Fabre, and Jacques Roumain. The collection consists of four audio recordings, one in which he recites his own poetry. less

Essence was a nationally syndicated weekly magazine television program that ran from 1983 to 1988, produced by the same firm that publishes the long-running Essence magazine. The Essence television program collection consists of seventeen video recordings; twelve episodes of the program, and five additional recordings related to those episodes' topics and hosts. less