Archives - Documents, Papers - African Americans in New Mexico - Research Guides at University of New Mexico

Images from the archives

James B. Lewis. CSWR holds the James B. Lewis Papers, 1975-1994, MSS 619 BC. Photo from the CSWR Identified Persons Photography Collection, PICT 992-014.

Left to right: Hopi leader Thomas Banyacya, SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) Representative Ralph Featherstone, Maulana Ron Karenga, and Reies Tijerina, ca. 1967-1968.. Photo from the Peter Nabokov Photography Collection, PICT 000-093. Click on the photo to enlarge it and see source info.

Documents and Papers

Use the New Mexico Archives Online (NMAO) engine to search the finding guides or inventories of archival collections at the CSWR, UNM. For best results limit the Repository to CSWR. (The NMAO can also search the inventories of collections at 20 other repositories in NM).

Here are some references in archival collections at CSWR related to African Americans in NM:

Albert Bacon Fall Papers, 1851-1927 (MSS 131 BC)
Fall was NM U.S. Senator and U.S. Secretary of the Interior, includes documents by Henry Ossian Flipper, an African American, working for Fall as government interpreter and translator.
American Indian Oral History Collection, 1967-1972 (MSS 314 BC)
Under the Native American Archives Protocols, this collection is temporarily closed until a review is completed by the individual tribes. (An example is this entry from the Navajo section of the collection - interview # 568, in 1969, reference to a Colored (Negro / Navajo) medicine man; experience with Colored soldiers during war, 1969).
Colonel John L. Gay Papers Pertaining to the Armijo Family, 1841-1902 (MSS 193 BC)
Includes sales of Negro slaves from San Antonio, Texas, via Armijo firm, to Anglo American customers in NM, 1864-1865.
Dennis Chavez Papers, 1921-1962 ( MSS 394 BC - Part 2)
Was NM U.S Senator, includes file on Colored USO building 1943, in Roswell, NM, Negros, World War II.
James B. Lewis Papers, 1975-1994 (MSS 619 BC)
NM African American leader, was NM State Treasurer, UNM graduate, his career, political and public government work, NAACP, etc.
Jerry Apodaca Papers, 1972-1979 (MSS 562 BC)
Was Governor of NM, folder on appointments of African Americans in state government, information, 1974-1975
Joseph Montoya Papers, 1913-1977 (MSS 386 BC)
Was NM U.S. Representative, includes folders on Albuquerque African American community 1964 and Negro Human Resources Program 1971.
NM History Collection, 1582-2012 (MSS 349 BC)
Includes National Council of Negro Women program, newsletter 1996, NM.
Reis Lopez Tijerina Collection, 1888-1978 (MSS 654 BC)
Tijerina was a land grant activist and civil rights leader. Includes information on Black Panthers, Colonial era Negro, African explorers in the New World, and Brotherhood awareness conferences with Blacks, 1974 and 1975, NM and U.S.
University of New Mexico Oral History Projects and Video Recordings Collection, 1984-1998 (MSS 821 BC)
Includes Albuquerque Negro Women's League Awards, 1995, with James B. Lewis, DVD of program.
UNM Black Alumni Chapter Oral Histories (MSS 948 BC)
Ten video oral histories with UNM Black Alumni Chapter members, on the NMDC.
more...less...
.
Women in Social Services Oral History Collection, 1986-1987 (MSS 590 BC)
Includes interviews with three African American women from Albuquerque from 1930s and 1940s.

Ramona Caplan Collection, 1995-2018, (MSS 1115 BC) Information on African Americans in the military, Cathy Williams, Buffalo Soldiers, Pueblo Colorado African American museum.

Directions for using NMAO

NMAO Help:

Choose the Repository = UNM Center for Southwest Research (or can open to any other place or to all.)

Put term in the search box on the left.

You might get some hits, so take note of the collections they are located in.

Click on the blue highlighted collection title to open the finding guide and use the search box on the right to look inside.

Hint: An alternate way to search is -- after opening a collection hit the "Print" button on the upper right. It will not actually print it out but will let you save an easier to read version of the finding aid to the desktop. This makes it convenient to see an overview of the contents of the collection.

Poster

Found on NMAO - New Mexico Poster Collection, MSS 341 OV, Oversize Folder 3, includes a poster - Women Who Made A Difference in New Mexico, New Mexico Department of Education, 1991, with images and bio clips of these three African American women - Myrtle Attaway Farquhar, Charlie Morrissey, Alice Wren (aka Sister Dolly, and Lauretta Loftus. Reverse side has additional information on the history of women, including a timeline and crossword puzzle.