Great Plains Black History Museum Collection

Archival material from the Great Plains Black History Museum (GPBHM) consists of over 200 document boxes of letters, photographs, clippings, artifacts, and other collection material. An archivist for the GPBHM inventoried the material and identified potential series for the collection, including Local Histories, Black Institutions, Family Papers, Rare Books, Musical Scores, Bertha Calloway’s Research Collection, Photographs, Artifacts, and Unknown or Miscellaneous documents. Documented here is a small selection of material from the whole collection. This material relates to the Department of Black Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

The Black Studies at UNO series includes documents from Dr. Alonzo Smith, Class Materials, documents from the Black Liberators for Action (BLAC), documents regarding Black Studies at other institutions, and miscellaneous documents. Included in the documents from Dr. Alonzo Smith are his research, writings, and communications. Also included are class materials, such as quizzes (keys and ungraded), syllabi, assigned readings, and pamphlets. The pamphlets show the course descriptions for the available Black Studies courses. There is also a section on Black Liberators for Action on Campus (BLAC). Within the documents for BLAC, there are brochures for the events they hosted and letters from the secretary to the president of the organization. Newsletters and reports, flyers, research, and miscellaneous documents are also in this sub-series. Also included are documents regarding Black Studies at other institutions. This includes newsletters and publications along with class descriptions for Black Studies courses. The newsletters detail the state of Black Studies at other institutions and their current goals and outreach.

Finding aid: https://archives.nebraska.edu/repositories/4/resources/3940

This collection was processed and digitized as part of "Charting our Path: Celebrating 50 Years of Black Studies at UNO" with funding provided by UNO Libraries' Eugene S. and Sunny M. Thomas Fund for Innovation.

The originals and other historical material is available in the archives of the Great Plains Black History Museum. Contact the museum for more information: 402.932.7077, info@GPBlackHistoryMuseum.org, 2221 N. 24th Street Omaha, NE, 68110

Statement on Harmful Material: Materials in UNO Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections are historical in nature and reflect the society in which they were produced. As such, they may contain racial, gender, sexual, religious, and other language and imagery that are offensive by today's standards. The documents, images, publications, and other materials have been retained in order to fully represent the materials in their original format. If the offensive text is not in the original, but in a finding aid, catalog record, or other description created by library employees, please contact Archives and Special Collections to bring this to our attention. Archives & Special Collections is guided by the core values of the Society of American Archivists. If you have questions about this statement or about Archives and Special Collections’ work, we welcome your feedback. Please contact us at unoasc@unomaha.edu or 402-554-6046.