Papers of Amiri Baraka, Poet Laureate of the Black Power Movement
Series 15 in this 18-series collection consists of the publications The African World, Black Nation, Black NewArk, Unity and Struggle, Main Trend, and IFCO News. The African World was originally published by SOBU/YOBU (Student Organization for Black Unity/Youth Organization for Black Unity), and the topics covered in the newspaper reflect the organization’s Pan-African, radical focus.
The collection which is housed at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History, consists of materials from the years 1913 through 1998 that document African American author and activist Amiri Baraka and were gathered by Dr. Komozi Woodard in the course of his research. Poetry, organizational records, print publications, articles, plays, speeches, personal correspondence, oral histories, as well as some personal records are included. The materials cover Baraka’s involvement in the politics in Newark, N.J. and in Black Power movement organizations such as the Congress of African People, the National Black Conference movement, the Black Women’s United Front. Later materials document Baraka’s increasing involvement in Marxism.
Extensive descriptions of the series contents are available from Archives Unbound.