LAAS Members in the Spotlight: Bradley Center’s Black Power Archives Oral History Project

The Tom & Ethel Bradley Center, an LA as Subject member, was featured in several news articles about the recent Black Power Archives Oral History Project that is a part of its extensive collection.

Established in 1981, the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center has amassed an archive that contains over one million images from Los Angeles-based freelance and independent photographers between the 1930s to the present. Approximately 80% of the collection is comprised of African American photographers in and near Los Angeles. And now these oral histories highlight the voices of Los Angelenos who played key roles in the fight for recognition and social justice for America’s Black citizens.

Portraits from the Bradley Center's Black Power Archives Oral History Project

The Black Power Archives Oral History Project highlights the voices of Los Angelenos who played key roles in the fight for recognition and social justice for America’s Black citizens. Spearheaded by California State University, Northridge historian and archivist Keith Rice and Africana studies professor Karin Stanford, this collection represents a decade-long endeavor to capture the voices of Angelenos who played pivotal roles in the struggle for civil rights and social change.

“L.A. is Hollywood, and everything is about the newest, the latest and the greatest. It’s history, the fact that its citizens of color went on to start some of the largest political, social justice movements in this country’s history — including the Black Power Movement and the Chicano Movement — tends to be overlooked. It’s time L.A. learned its history, all of it,” Keith Rice.

Read more about this important oral history collection in the following articles: