Online Archive of California (OAC)
Keyword search for primary source materials in UCLA's online finding aids:
Media, Entertainment and Literature
- Arthur B. Spingarn Papers, ca. 1900-1971Arthur B. Spingarn (1878-1971) was a lawyer, chairman of the NAACP national legal committee, and vice-president (1911-40) and president of the NAACP (1940-66). He collected books about African Americans, and founded the Spingarn Collection of Negro Literature at Howard University. The collection consists of letters to Spingarn from friends and authors, and book reviews collected by him relating to his collection of books about African Americans.
- Imamu A. Baraka Papers, 1956-1966 consists of poetry manuscripts submitted to Baraka while editor of Yugen magazine as well as correspondence of the poet, playwright and novelist.
- Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives - Search the finding aid for keyword: "Watts"
- Miriam Matthews Collection of Los Angeles Newspapers on African Americans, ca. 1948-1985
- SOUL Publications Inc. Records, 1955-2002 a Los Angeles-based enterprise established for greater visibility for Black artists in the music industry. Among the materials included in the collection are newspapers, magazines, clipping files, audio cassettes of interviews and performances and photographs.
- Anne Cunningham Smith collection of letters from Juanita Harrison to Alice M. Forster, ca. 1919-1936 focuses upon a Pasadena resident who corresponded with writer Juanita Harrison who was known for her autobiography, My Great, Wide, Beautiful World (1936)
- African Americans in Entertainment and Media Oral History SeriesThe interviews in the series African Americans in Entertainment and Media are designed to document African Americans in television, radio, theater and film and aims to better understand how they overcame bias and discrimination and were trailblazers who opened doors for other African Americans in the industry. Also documented is how inextricably linked each interviewee was to the history and struggles of the larger African American community in Los Angeles.
- Central Avenue Sounds Oral History ProjectInterviews in this series preserve the spoken memories of individuals, mainly musicians, who were raised near and/or performed on Los Angeles's Central Avenue from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s.
- Wanda Coleman papersWanda Coleman was born on November 13, 1946 and grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. Coleman's poetry is widely anthologized and published, and her poetry collection Bathwater Wine received the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. In addition to her poetic career, Coleman was also successful across genres. She had a well-known column in the Los Angeles Times and won an Emmy for her writing on Days of Our Lives. The collection contains work produced by Coleman between 1960 and 2013, including manuscripts and drafts of her published poetry and prose, journalism, writing for film and television, and spoken word recordings, as well as many unpublished writings. In addition, there is a wealth of correspondence with major literary figures and institutions, activist materials, and ephemera relating to Coleman's professional and personal life.