From around the world they come to New Orleans. Academic scholars, journalists, script writers, novelists, and history buffs are attracted by the diverse and invaluable resources of the Amistad Research Center on the Tulane University campus. The Center is a manuscripts library for the study of ethnic history and culture and race relations in the United States. While the focus is national, the holdings are international in scope. Researchers who use these resources find information about social, economic, and political history that leads to new interpretations of history.

Amistad is among the largest of the nation’s repositories specializing in the history of African Americans. Papers of African Americans and records of organizations and institutions of the African American community make up about 90 percent of the Center’s holdings. The other 10 percent, significant in number and content, contains documentation on Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, Asian Americans, European immigrants, and Appalachian whites. The Center also holds records related to other Protestant denominations, Roman Catholicism, and Judaism, as well as many more collections that are entirely secular in origin.