Series I: Personal Papers, 1910-1970 - Series I is comprised of the personal papers, both collected and created, of eleven people active in the Civil Rights Movement.

Subseries A: Arthur Calhoun Papers, 1910-1966 - Calhoun collected items concerning education, medical care, housing, Operation Freedom, and the Presbyterian Church. Two of his clippings are about white people being persecuted for acts of racial justice.

Subseries B: Charles A. Haynie Papers, 1961-1965 - Haynie was instrumental in voter registration efforts in Fayette County, Tennessee. His papers include several of his notebooks with plans and results regarding these efforts as well as handwritten and form-letter affidavits by citizens denied voting rights.

Subseries C: Jane E. Hodes Papers, 1963-1966 - Hodes' papers include letters from her son while he volunteered in the South, organization letters for parents of these volunteers, and many brochures and letters from a variety of civil rights organizations.

Subseries D: Edwin M. Hoffman Papers, 1952-1966 - Hoffman's papers include information from the YMCA at Berea College; letters from political figures about migrant workers, unfair trials, and the United Nations; and a copy of Southern Reposure, a newspaper parody from 1956.

Subseries E: Buford W. Posey Papers, 1948-1967 - This subseries includes correspondence about and with Avon Rollins; business papers such as minutes and budgets for SCEF; a photograph of Bruce Moore, whose daughter integrated a black school; a great deal of information about Knoxville, Tennessee and Danville, Kentucky; mimeographed booklets to help local groups pursue civil rights activities; and several issues of the Mississippi Free Press.

Subseries F: Sidney R. Redmond Papers, 1949-1959 - This subseries primarily consists of legal documents for the desegregation cases Redmond prosecuted in Missouri. It also includes many issues of the Petal Paper from Petal, Mississippi.

Subseries G: Walter and Elizabeth Rogers Papers, 1965-1970 - Many of the publications in this subseries were written by the Rogerses and sent out as a newsletter for their New Orleans neighborhood's flood relief efforts.

Subseries H: Roy L. Self Papers, 1958-1966 - This subseries includes an annual record of Self's activities as a member of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, attendee materials from SCLC's 10th Annual Convention, and various booklets and brochures about civil rights organizations and efforts.

Subseries I: Dorothy Swisshelm Papers, 1954-1966 - This subseries begins with the manuscript and supporting documents for Swisshelm's book entitled Six Year Behind the Magnolia Curtain, an account of her experiences in Americus, Georgia, and Biloxi, Mississippi, working with a variety of civil rights groups. It also contains papers regarding her work as a professional social worker, the content of a talk presented by James W. Silver about his book, and a variety of documents about civil rights particularly in Georgia, Mississippi, and Nebraska where she lived and worked. Swisshelm also provided many issues of the Voice of Americus, the Southern Patriot, and the Omaha Star.

Subseries J: Claude Williams Papers, 1918-1966 - In addition to documents and photographs from the People's Institute for Applied Religion, this subseries contains photographs from Commonwealth College and The Arkansas Training School for Boys at Pine Bluff, three volumes from Williams' trial for heresy, and many publications from SCLC and other civil rights organizations.

Subseries K: Hosea L. Williams Papers, 1962-1965 - This subseries consists of publications from the Office of Economic Opportunity and other organizations.

Series II: Organizations, 1935-1979 - Series II is comprised of documents from more than ten civil rights organizations. Papers from the Southern Conference Educational Fund include a pamphlet entitled "The Case Against Carl and Ann Braden" and business records such as board minutes, budgets, and correspondence. There are eight folders containing Southern Regional Council Special Reports on topics such as school desegregation, urban issues in Southern cities, the justice system, and farmers.

In addition to those large collections, there are a variety of records from the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Congress of Racial Equality, Fayett-Haywood Workcamps, the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation, the National Urban League, the Southern Student Organizing Committee, and the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Marketing materials for these organizations consist of mass mailings with information and financial appeals. Many organizations have pertinent newspaper clippings as well as their own news releases. Throughout the collection are occasional photographs, in addition to the folders specifically dedicated to them.

Series III: Publications, 1932-1977 - Series III is comprised of publications such as books, pamphlets, legal documents, journals, newsletters, and a newspaper documenting the Civil Rights Movement.

Series A: Books, 1951-1968 - The eleven volumes in this subseries include topics such as school desegregation, voting rights, and other civil rights issues. Mississippi: the Closed Society is the book that James Silver spoke about in Dorothy Swisshelm's Papers.

Subseries B: Pamphlets, circa 1950-1970 - These mostly undated pamphlets have been sorted into nine specific topics as well as civil rights in general. Pamphlets that are primarily about specific subjects (such as economics and employment, education, government and law, riots/demonstrations/violence, and voting) have been organized alphabetically by title. Pamphlets that contain several topics, including those mentioned above, have been organized together, also alphabetically by title. Brief titles of every pamphlet are listed below in notes for each folder.

Subseries C: Legal Documents, 1932-1961 - This subseries consists of legal briefs and procedural papers for civil rights cases, including the one against Carl and Ann Braden, three about desegregation in Missouri, and several held in Alabama.

Subseries D: Journals, 1955-1973 - This subseries consists of a complete run of New South from September 1955 to Fall 1973.

Subseries E: Newsletters, 1945-1984 - Many of the newsletters in this subseries have complete or near complete runs (dates have been indicated as much as possible). Large collections consist of the Black Panther, South Today, The Southern Courier, and The Southern Patriot/Struggle. Smaller collections include Ammunition, Did you Know?, Fayette-Haywood Newsletter, Fellowship, Highlander Reports, The Phoenix, SCLC Newsletter, SDS New Left Notes, The Student Voice, Urban League Newsletter, V.E.P. News, and others.

Subseries F: Newspapers, 1966 - This subseries is for a single issue of the Columbus News from April 16, 1966.

Series IV: Audiovisual Material, 1955-1966 - This series is comprised primarily of 7-inch reel-to-reel tapes containing interviews with a variety of people and speeches from civil rights gatherings. Many tapes were made of Bruce Maxwell, Don Grubbs, Clifford Dun, Hazel Gregory, and Claude Williams. Gatherings include a Freedom Revival, a reunion at Highlander Center, the Washington Conference on Voting Restrictions, a Southern Christian Leadership Convention, and a meeting of the Students for a Democratic Society. There are many other people and topics represented as well, and other formats include smaller reel-to-reel tapes and an LP record.

Series V: Oversize Materials, 1938-1966 - This series includes a variety of documents from the Claude Williams Papers, eight posters by Billy Morrow Jackson, and the very brittle original newspapers that have been digitized onto CDs in the papers of Buford Posey, Sidney R. Redmond, Walter and Elizabeth Rogers, and Dorothy Swisshelm.