Collections

William Hastie Collection

William H. Hastie was born in Knoxville in 1904 and became the first Black Governor of the Virgin Islands (1946) and the first Black Federal Judge in the United States (1950). This collection features scares of personal and official photographs. scrapbooks, honorary degrees, letters, plaques, scrolls and other memorabilia.

Austin High School Collection

This collection chronicles the activities and the leaders of the school since its founding in 1879. It contains graduation programs from the first class in 1888 (Knoxville Colored High) to the current Austin East graduation. Class pictures date back to 1894. The published year- books from the first one in 1924 are in the collection. There are hundreds of faculty and student photographs.

Knoxville College Collection

The Knoxville College collection depicts many of the activities and individuals of the college since its founding in 1875. This collection has many of the early yearbooks (KNOXUNIOR), newspapers (THE AURORN) bulletins (inaugurations, anniversaries, etc), photographs and more.

Newspaper Collection

This collection contains issues of African American newspapers. including issues of the East Tennessee News which was published from 1909-1919. There are also issues of the Flashlight Herald, The Public Guide, The Independent Call and a number of others. The Center recently received the collection of the Vine Jr. Flash from the estate of Principal Leonard A Jackson. The oldest in the newspaper collection is The Knoxville Bulletin, which was published February 25, 1882.

Library and Resource Center

This collection contains more than two thousand books. Over eighty of these books were written by native Knoxvillians. There are more than 100 biographies in print from Muhammad Ali to Whitney Young. In Addition, there are filmed biographies of Josephine Baker, Mahalia Jackson, Jack Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackie Robinson, and others. There are more than 300 videos, including dozens of classic African American films of the 1930’s and 1940’s as well as contemporary African American performers. The topics covered in print and film include African Americans in the military, religion, civil rights and sport& are thousands of photos depicting the evolution of homes, businesses and people of East Tennessee from the mid 1800′s to present day.