The Center for Black Music Research Collection contains materials that reflect many areas of Black music including collections from composers, ethnomusicologists, music researchers, music journalists, and also scores, published music, and audiovisual collections across all genres. These collection guides, or finding aids, provide access to materials held in archival special collections. The guide describes the organization and offers content information so researchers can discover relevant information.
Many musical works listed in these guides are handwritten; those listed with a publisher's name are printed. Please check the guides for more information.
Additional guides will be added as they are completed..
Please contact archives@colum.edu with questions.
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Guide to the Robert A. Harris Collection
Columbia College Chicago
Robert Allen Harris is a composer, conductor of choral music, and choir clinician. The collection reflects his work as a choir director and professor as well as his published and unpublished compositions, primarily of choral music, recordings, and works from other composers are also present.
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Guide to the Robert Leigh Morris Collection
Columbia College Chicago
Robert Leigh Morris (b. 1941) is an American composer and music instructor. The Robert Leigh Morris Collection contains his personal music scores, from published works to drafts, and programs from his performances, as well as scores by other composers. Professional correspondences, documents, and some of Morris’s writings are also included.
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Guide to the Society of Black Composers Records
Columbia College Chicago
The Society of Black Composers was founded by a group of composers in the New York City area in 1968 and ceased operation in 1973. The collection houses the organizational records of the Society.
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Guide to the Sue Cassidy Clark Collection
Columbia College Chicago
Sue Cassidy Clark is a music journalist and photographer who specialized in soul, gospel, and rock music in the late 1960s and early 1970s and the collection contains her recorded interviews, interview transcripts, and other research materials for her interviews of the musical pioneers she interviewed.
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Guide to the Talib Rasul Hakim Collection
Columbia College Chicago
Talib Rasul Hakim, born Stephen Alexander Chambers, was an educator, musician, and composer. The collection contains his early scores and performance notes about his compositions, as well as recordings and research notes.