Library holdings include the papers of many notable writers such as Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Ted Joans. The book collection includes essentially all important contemporary black American writers. The Library places particular emphasis on works produced by blacks of the American West. The Bancroft Library also serves as the repository for several local African American organizations such as the NAACP West Coast Region, the Records of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the Black Scholar Journal.

With this web site, we plan to highlight African American resources in California. There are so many scholarly resources, in a wide variety of formats, and located in so many places that students, faculty, and other researchers can benefit from the creation of an "umbrella" web site that pulls these rich resources together to enhance their exposure and increase their usability. We envision this site to be more than a simple list of resources. We plan to create pertinent bibliographies, develop an historical narrative of African Americans in California, and create a visual, chronological story of the influence of African Americans in California.