Scope and arrangement
The Morris Levitt research collection consists principally of handwritten notes and photocopies of documents and articles Levitt compiled concerning African-American history, particularly the Revolutionary War period and sports. Nearly all of the notes have no attribution, i.e. no sources are given, and there are frequently no citations for photocopies of news clippings and images, other articles, and pages from books. In addition to the published articles Levitt co-authored, the collection contains typescripts (1970) concerning Fleet Walker (1856-1926), the first black major league baseball player; notes about Weeksville in Brooklyn, New York; and Levitt's research letters and photocopies of the writings of the Pennsylvania poet and painter, Edwin Garnet Riley.
There are also five manuscripts by other authors, three by Robert J. Swan. The subjects are black unrest in colonial New York, blacks in colonial Brooklyn, both segregation and desegregation of Brooklyn's public schools in the 19th century, blacks in colonial Brooklyn, and nineteenth century history of blacks, whites and American Indians in Ohio.