Nevada Black History Project Records

The Nevada Black History Project Records of collection 98-33 include administrative records of the project, biographical files, records of the publication of the second edition of the newspaper publication, materials documenting the effort to have the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., declared a holiday in Nevada, records associated with an essay and a book written by Dr. Elmer Rusco on Black history, print sources for the history of blacks (outside of Nevada), and photographs.

The administrative records include correspondence, some financial materials, and drafts of the text for the exhibit and the publication(s) Nevada Black History: Yesterday and Today. There are folders with information about Black music and poetry by Nevadans, some photocopies of photographs from Utah, and copies of some newspaper sources on Black history in Nevada.

The biographical files contain information about Black Nevadans selected to be included in either the video or the publications about Blacks in Nevada. These individual files usually contain a standard form which the Project used to elicit basic biographical information, supplemented with correspondence or newspaper clippings. Additional information about many of the individuals in this series is contained in Series 3, Second Edition, in the folders labeled "Individual Files." Series 3 also contains some administrative information, primarily about financing the publication.

Series 4 contains information about the Nevada effort to have Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday declared a holiday. Included are correspondence, clippings, speeches and essays, research notes from Dr. Rusco, newsletters from the Reno-Sparks Branch of the NAACP, a Freedom Fund Banquet program, and assorted printed material related to the topic.

Dr. Elmer Rusco's writings about Nevada Black history are represented in two folders. A copy of his essay for the Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History appears in Series 5, as does administrative records related to photographs for the book, Good Time Coming: Black Nevadans in the 19th Century.

As part of the Nevada Black History Project, Dr. Rusco collected many examples of Black publications not related to Nevada, as well as catalogs from which such materials could be obtained. Those publications make up Series 6. Also included in this series are three books which have been kept with the collection, rather than removed and cataloged separately.

The last series consists of photographs, which have been transferred to the photo archives of the Special Collections Department as photo collection P97-56. Although there are some historical images, most of the photographs and the video tape focus on the achievements of Black Nevadans in the last half of the twentieth century. Most of the photographs were taken by professional photographers for this project; others are from public archives and from individuals. Reproductions of photographs from other repositories must be obtained from the agency which holds the original photo. Subjects include individuals (identified and not), groups, events, ceremonies, meetings, parades, historic sites associated with Blacks, cemeteries, buildings, churches, libraries, and neighborhoods.