The Thomas A. Fleming Collection of African American History and Literature includes a number of seminal texts of the Civil Rights Era, with a specific focus on the life and works of Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Dr. Martin Luther King. Encompassing autobiographical material, literary texts and works of criticism, The Fleming Collection offers scholars the opportunity to engage in research on these seminal leaders while enjoying the benefits of a private book collection.

The Fleming Collection offers a range of poetic works, including first editions of poetry collections edited by Dudley Randall at Detroit’s historic Broadside Press. The Collection also boasts several rare copies of books edited by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps and dating from the period of the Harlem Renaissance.

The Fleming Collection features a number of African American literature anthologies from the 1980’s and 1990’s, providing readers with a wide selection of short stories, verse, drama and slave narratives from Black American culture. Edited by some of the most highly respected scholars of African American studies, these anthologies offer an excellent sampling of the seminal texts of Black writing throughout the twentieth century.

These anthologies are themselves a repository of Black American life, for their contents document the literary works of the slave era, Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements, and Womanism.

The Fleming Collection offers readers a wide selection of biographies of some of the most influential African Americans of the twentieth century. Leaders of pivotal political movements as well as sports and entertainment figures, the subjects of these biographies mirror the growth of African American influence in all arenas of American culture.

The Fleming Collection includes a number of texts examining the role of religion in the African American community, and the role of religion in Black liberation. These critical works, written by theologians and widely respected religious scholars such as James Cone, provide students of black history, sociology and religious studies with a perspective on the Black Church and its pivotal role in Black life.

• The Thomas A. Fleming Collection should serve students in a number of ways:
• Students of Education will find the wide array of works in the Fleming Collection most useful in curriculum planning for the secondary classroom and for specific projects on twentieth century Black authors;
• Those who are particularly interested in the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King should benefit from the Collection’s generous selection of both primary and secondary texts, including his autobiographical and political writing;
• Students seeking material on Richard Wright will discover a repository of texts written by Wright and by scholars of his work;
• The literature anthologies provide a rich selection of short stories, poems, slave narratives and works of drama for use by students throughout the Humanities, and particularly for those who seek concise and convenient sources of these works;
• Students will also gain access to a number of writings on Black theology, religious influence of political thought and Black Liberation Theory.

EMU Press release - April 17, 2006