African American Research Collection
The Oxon Hill Branch of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System was built on the site of the Sojourner Truth Elementary School in 1967, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. In response to the Civil Rights era's growing request for African American research materials, the Oxon Hill Branch Library's special collection was created. It focuses on African American history and culture. Named for Sojourner Truth, the collection continues to honor one of this country's truly remarkable women and has become an outstanding regional resource.
This comprehensive collection of reference materials on African American history and culture includes over 16,000 cataloged items (many are rare or out-of-print), periodicals, sheet music by African American composers, photographs and posters. The pamphlet file contains pamphlets, clippings and other reference sources. The collection is for use in the Sojourner Truth Room but copies of selected materials are also in the library's circulating collection. Information is available from microfilm and hard copy editions of an extensive set of current and historical periodicals, including the NAACP's Crisis (1910), the Journal of Negro History (1916) and Ebony Magazine (1945).
The collection includes editions of some slave narratives and the thirty-one volume Writer's Project series. Other topics are antislavery and slavery tracts, literary criticism, and the history of African Americans in Maryland and Prince George's County.
The books in the Sojourner Truth Room appear in the library catalog. A separate index of biographies, short stories, plays and literary criticism in the collection is available in the Sojourner Truth Room.