Tom & Ethel Bradley Center, Oviatt Library, CSU Northridge

The Tom & Ethel Bradley Center (formerly known as the Institute for Arts & Media) archives contain 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. The Bradley Center is the only repository for photographs before 1993 from the Los Angeles Sentinel. Oral histories, manuscripts, and other ephemeral materials support the photographic collection. Additionally, the archives contain over six dozen oral histories from African American photographers, Civil Rights leaders and organizers, individuals involved with the history of Los Angeles, Journalism, Mexicans in Exile, and the United Farmworkers. Audio and video comprise the collection along with the personal papers of many individuals and organizations. The manuscript collections contains the papers of many Los Angeles civic leaders, the AFL-CIO, AFT, CA Federation of Teachers, Community Relations Committee of the Jewish-Federation Council of L.A., CPPA, League of Women Voters of L.A., and the United Way of L.A. Other collections include the archives of Journalist Michael Emery and the United Farmworkers Organization. The archives represent one of the largest collections of African American photographers west of the Mississippi and the most extensive collection in Southern California. Represented in the African American collection is the Civil Rights Movement and its leaders as well as local churches, politicians, musicians (many from the jazz era), singers, entertainers, athletes and social organizations. Coverage includes Dr. King, Tom Bradley, Sam Yorty, Rev. H.H. Brookins, Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, Earl Warren, Louis Armstrong, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Muhammad Ali, Errol Garner, Dinah Washington, James Baldwin, and many other luminaries. There is documentation of political campaigns, voter registrations and thousands of images of daily life and public occasions such as marches and protests, celebrations and parades. Photographers include Harry Adams, Charles Williams, Guy Crowder, Jack Davis, James Jeffrey, Roland Charles, Maxie Floyd, Calvin Hicks, Black Photographers of California, Bob Douglas, and Gordon “Specs” Powell. Outside of Los Angeles is coverage of the wars in El Salvador and Honduras, the Afro-Columbian community Palenque de San Basilio near Cartagena, Cuba, the Masai and the Maya refugee camps in Mexico. There is extensive documentation of the United Farmworkers organization and César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, Gibert Padilla, Luis Valdez and other leaders of the union and its members. The Bradley Center's Border Studies Collection contains oral histories, video, and photographs documenting border issues and economic violence in Mexico. Also included in the archives are images of the San Fernando Valley including high school and college events. Additionally, IAM houses the Plaza Methodist Church (Los Angeles United Methodist Museum of Social Justice) archives of the beginnings of the church, documenting early Los Angeles and the immigrant communities between the 1890s to the 1960s. Photographers include Richard Cross, Emmon Clarke, Herb Carleton, and Julián Cardona. For additional information please visit the website http://www.csun.edu/bradley-center