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African-American history sources
by Nancianne Parkes Suber
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has an abundance of materials concerning African-American subjects. The manuscripts cover the periods of early slavery through the Civil Rights struggles.Anne L. Webster, a longtime Archives employee, has compiled an extensive listing of the manuscripts, photographs, and sound collections to aid genealogical and historical researchers.
Entitled African Americans: A Mississippi Source Book, this 192-page work is now being offered to the public.
The collections are indexed by county and subject. Some of the chapter titles included are: Black Mississippi Authors, Black Mississippi Newspapers, Published Sources, and Official Records.
A complete description of each manuscript is given along with the library call number.
Typical of the listings offered are:
1) Charles H. Ramberg Papers, 1957 - 1978. Charles Henry Ramberg, graduate of Davidson College, served as an administrative assistant to Charles Evers, the first black mayor of Fayette, Mississippi. The papers contain subject files, photographs, negatives, contact prints, audiovisual and printed material.
2) A. J. Sanderson Papers, Nov. 1859 - 1861. This small collection contains the business papers of A. J. Sanderson of Shongolo, in Carroll County, Mississippi. The papers include two bills of sale for slaves (one, a family of four), invoices, and bills of sale for cotton.
As you can see, this book is a gold mine for anyone doing African-American research and should be a "must have" for research libraries and collections.
It is available in paperback ($28) and hardcover ($40) plus $3 shipping. The work may be ordered through Pioneer Publishing Co., P. O. Box 408, Carrollton, MS 38917, or call 662-237-6010.
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Nancianne P. Suber may be contacted at this address.
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