Black Culture and History
Local Events & Exhibits
- Library Programs for Black History Month
- Black Studies Program - University of Missouri
Dedicated to “teaching & research of the World Black Experience” through courses, events and programs. - Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Calendar of Events Booklet
From Missouri's Annual State Celebration Commission. - Columbia Values Diversity Celebration
Annual “community breakfast and celebration of the life and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” - We Always Swing Jazz Series
See full schedule of performers and links to the artists’ websites.
Local Interest & Places to Visit
- John William “Blind” Boone and House
- Blind Boone (John William Boone)
“A Brief History of John William “Blind” Boone” compiled by Christine Montgomery for the State Historical Society of Missouri. - Blind Boone House – National Register of Historic Places
Registration form contains history, drawing and other data on the house itself. - “Two houses preserve part of Columbia's history”
Article by Caitlin Wherley published in Vox magazine, August 11, 2011.
- Blind Boone (John William Boone)
- Columbia Cemetery – United States Colored Infantry
One of the earliest regiments of the United States Colored Infantry is interred at Columbia Cemetery. See also Lincoln University. - Columbia‘s History - Selected articles from the Columbia Daily Tribune
- “Black women’s social clubs an important part of city’s past”
Column by Bill Clark published in The Columbia Daily Tribune, Sept. 27, 2006 - “Jumping society’s hurdles. Black Horseman made big name for himself”
Article by Jim Harrison about Tom Bass, published in the Columbia Daily Tribune, July 21, 2009 - “Preserving pieces of Columbia’s Black Cultural Heritage”
Article by Kat Hughes published in The Columbia Daily Tribune, May 13, 2008
- “Black women’s social clubs an important part of city’s past”
- Frederick Douglass High School
A history provided by the Columbia Public Schools.
Nomination form entry from the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. - Lincoln University
Founded in 1866 by the 62nd and 65th United States Colored Infantries, Lincoln University now stands as the oldest Historically Black College and University west of the Mississippi and the only institution in America founded by African American Civil War veterans. - Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Garden - Columbia
- McQuitty Shotgun House
The historic shotgun house originally residing at the corner of Garth and Worley was moved to the Boone Junction Historic Village next to the Walters-Boone County Historical Society. - Mid-Missouri Highsteppers
A contemporary precision dance and drill troupe. - Miles Manor Subdivision
- “Shades of a Bygone Era”
Article by Dave Moore published in The Columbia Daily Tribune, Feb. 21, 2003. - “Dream of opportunity drove pioneer worth remembering”
Article by Tony Messenger published in The Columbia Daily Tribune, Dec. 8, 2004
- “Shades of a Bygone Era”
- St. Paul’s A.M.E.
African Episcopal Church founded in 1880. The current church building was dedicated in 1892.
Waymarking.com's entry about the Second Christian Church. - Also has an entry in the National Register of Historic Places
The Second Christian Church is the smallest of the three black churches in Columbia. The present church building was built in 1927.
Nomination form entry from the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. - Second Missionary Baptist Church
Founded in 1866 by “recently emancipated slaves and free people of color who banded together,” it was originally called the African Union Church. The current church at 4th and Broadway was completed in 1894.
Nomination form entry from the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. - Sharp End Neighborhood
- “Bottomlands: Why White Folks Fled the Flat Branch”
Short history of Columbia’s Sharp End neighborhood, now part of the area known as Flat Branch, excerpted from Jason Jindrich’s University of Missouri thesis “Our Black Children.” - “Looking back at city's 'Sharp End'”
Article by Bill Clark published in The Columbia Daily Tribune, March 4, 2012
- “Bottomlands: Why White Folks Fled the Flat Branch”
Genealogy
- The African Names Database
Identifies over 67,000 Africans aboard slave ships, using name, age, gender, origin and place of embarkation. - African-American Genealogy: What’s Out There?
Part one of a five part series by Traci L.Wilson-Kleekamp for the Missouri State Archives. - Ozarks Digital Library – Black Families of the Ozarks
“Digital copy of Greene County Archives Bulletin Number 45: Black Families of the Ozarks” – from the Springfield-Greene Library. - Introduction to African-American Genealogy
A beginner’s guide by About.com’s genealogy expert.
History - Local Resources
- Black Studies Program - University of Missouri
Dedicated to “teaching & research of the World Black Experience” through courses, events and programs. - Columbia Convention & Visitor’s Bureau
Short descriptions of the civil war letters of Lewis Riley located in the Western Historical Manuscript collection, the section of the Columbia Cemetery where soldiers from Missouri’s 62nd US Colored Regiment are interred and a photograph of “the home of Ragtime” where J.W. Blind Boone lived. - Lloyd L. Gaines Digital Collection – MU Law Library
Lloyd Lionel Gaines was denied admission to the University School of Law in 1936 based on state law. In 1938 Gaines and the NAACP won his case overturning the University’s admission policy. His case was the first of others that led to Brown vs. the Board of Education, which outlawed segregation in public education. - State Historical Society Black Community Photographs Collection
Photographs from 1958-1963 depicting black businesses and communities in Columbia.
History - State Resources
- George Washington Carver National Monument & National Park – Diamond, Missouri
Information on field trips, activities for kids and teaching resources. - Missouri Digital Heritage
Search under Cultures and Communities for digitized collections pertaining to African-American history and culture in Missouri. - Missouri History Museum
View text-only versions of African-American history-related articles published by the Missouri Historical Society (now known as the Missouri History Museum) in Gateway Magazine. Click on title and then “access this title” to view articles. - Missouri State Archives - Missouri's African-American History
Includes educational materials, a timeline of Missouri's African-American history and links to original documents available online. - Musicians Local Number 627 - The Cradle of Kansas City Jazz
History of the African-American Musician’s Union by the University of Missouri–Kansas City University Library. - Progress Amidst Prejudice: Portraits of African Americans in Missouri, 1880-1920.
Includes the African American Portrait Database from the collection of the Missouri State Archives.
History - National Resources
- A&E Biography Channel
Featured biographies, places and events plus an interactive Black History timeline and information on upcoming programming on the A&E Biography channel. - Biographies - National Archive ARC Collection
Click on digital copies search to find online documents and texts about famous and notable African Americans in the National Archives. - Documenting the American South
“Internet access to texts, images and audio files related to southern history, literature and culture” from the library collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. - History Channel
Black history interactive timeline, black history milestones, profiles of 65 African-American icons and information on upcoming programming on the History channel. - Library of Congress
- African American History Month
The Library of Congress has “free and open access to historic maps, photos documents, audio and video… that document the American experience.” - The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909
Text and images from pamphlets published by African-American authors including first-person accounts of slavery. - Library of Congress Web Guides
Choose from a wide list of topics on American history, literature and culture including “The African-American Mosaic”. - Library of Congress Resource Guide
A guide to online documents and websites related to the African-American experience plus a selected bibliography for adult and younger readers.
- African American History Month
- NAACP Records
Since 1964, the Library of Congress has served as the official repository of NAACP records, the “cornerstone of Library’s unparalleled resources for the study of the Civil Rights Movement.” - Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project
- University of Virginia - excerpts
A sample of transcripts and some sound files form the slave narratives collected by the WPA from 1936-1938. - Library of Congress, American Memory
Full page texts of slave narratives collected by the WPA program.
- University of Virginia - excerpts
People
- Frederick Douglass
Resource guide to online documents about Frederick Douglass at the Library of Congress and other websites plus a selected bibliography. - W.E.B. Du Bois
Resource guide to online documents about W.E.B. Du Bois at the Library of Congress and other websites plus a selected bibliography. - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Atlanta Journal & Constitution Remembers MLK
Photos, timeline and stories from the newspaper including a feature section “Portraits from History from those who knew MLK.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute – Stanford
In addition to The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, the site has links to resources on Dr. King and quick links to information about other individuals and events associated with him and with the Civil Rights Movement. - National Civil Rights Museum
Then Museum “chronicles key episodes of the American Civil Rights movement” with an online slideshow of their permanent exhibit plus information on new exhibits and links to related sites. - Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center
Information on the Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. collection of 10,000 items and works spanning his life.
- Atlanta Journal & Constitution Remembers MLK
- Rosa Parks
Resource guide to online documents about Rosa Parks at the Library of Congress and other websites plus a selected bibliography. - Harriet Tubman
- Library of Congress Resource Guide
Resource guide to online documents about Harriet Tubman at the Library of Congress and other websites plus a selected bibliography. - Harriet Tubman Home
Information on Harriet Tubman’s home and church with a short biography of her life and links to related sites on New York History Net, a site devoted to New York history.
- Library of Congress Resource Guide
- Booker T. Washington
Resource guide to online documents about Booker T. Washington at the Library of Congress and other websites plus a selected bibliography for adult and younger readers.
Topics of Interest
- Abolition of Slavery – 13th Amendment
National Archives – America’s Historical Documents - Abolitionism – Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Online collections include “The Dred Scott Decision and Its Bitter Legacy” and “Wilberforce, Lincoln and the Abolition of Slavery” - Brown vs. the Board of Education (1954)
- National Archives
From the National Archives – America’s Historical Documents - Brown Foundation
The foundation “works to educate the public about the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education” U.S. Supreme Court decisionwhich ended the legal segregation of education on the basis of race. - Library of Congress
Timeline of events and related documents from the Library of Congress’s digital collections.
- National Archives
- Civil Rights
- Library of Congress – Resource Guide
Resource guide to online documents about Civil Rights at the Library of Congress and other websites plus a selected bibliography. - National Civil Rights Museum
The Museum “chronicles key episodes of the American Civil Rights movement” with an online slideshow of their permanent exhibit plus information on new exhibits and links to related sites. - United States Dept. of Justice – Civil Rights Division
History and impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and subsequent amendments to the law.
- Library of Congress – Resource Guide
- Dred Scott Decision
- Missouri State Archives
“Curriculum designed by Archives staff includes lesson plans and original documents to help students (4th- 6th grades) understand slavery and freedom suits.” - Dred Scott Case – Washington University Collection
“Collection of over 400 pages of full-text searchable documents that represent the full history of the Dred Scott case.” - Dred Scott 150th Anniversary Commemoration
Missouri State Archives’ gateway to resources and curricula on the Dred Scott case.
- Missouri State Archives
- Emancipation
Images of the original document, transcript of the Proclamation and additional resources form the National Archives. - Harlem Renaissance
Resource guide to online documents about the Harlem Renaissance at the Library of Congress and other websites plus a selected bibliography. - Slavery
- Missouri’s Early Slave Laws
“Curriculum designed by Archives staff includes a lesson plan, digitized documents, and guided discussion questions to introduce students (grades 8-12) to slave laws and their effect on African Americans and abolitionists”. - Library of Congress Resource Guide
Resource guide to online documents about slavery at the Library of Congress and other websites plus a selected bibliography.
- Missouri’s Early Slave Laws
- Underground Railroad
- National Park Service Maps and Sites
The National Park Service site has a map showing escape routes and a list of sites associated with the “railroad.” - National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Detailed information and online exhibits about the history of human slavery from early times to the present from the Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
- National Park Service Maps and Sites
- Voting Rights Act (1965)
- Our Documents – 100 Milestone Documents
Original image, text and brief introduction to the Act that “outlawed discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War” from the National Archives. - United States Dept. of Justice – Civil Rights Division
History and effect of the 1965 act with information on subsequent amendments to the law.
- Our Documents – 100 Milestone Documents
Databases
- African-American History Online
Provides expansive and in-depth information on the people, events, and topics important to the study of African-American history. - Biography Resource Center
Do a name search to find biographical information on a huge range of people or browse categories such as African Americans. - Heritage Quest
Search the US census 1790-1930, selected Revolutionary War records, a variety of local and family histories plus articles of interest to genealogy researchers. - NewsBank
Special reports on the U.S. Presidency, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and celebrating Black History Month. - SIRS
Leading Issues section includes information on civil rights and racial profiling.

Indicates a subscription resource that requires a DBRL