Welcome to DCAAP

Thank you for your interest in the DCAAP project.  DCAAP concluded in December 2016. While we are no longer updating these web pages, researchers and archivists may find resources on these pages to be of use.

George Washington University's Special Collections Research Center and Africana Studies Program are partnering with five partner archives throughout the city to enhance access to previously unavailable research materials that document the history of the African diaspora in DC, the civil rights movements, the struggle for Home Rule, the rise of Black-owned businesses, the development of Howard University, slavery in the nation’s capital, jazz music in D.C., and the literary arts. 

Between January 2014 and December 2016, the project team will process 125 archival collections at the District of Columbia Archives, the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Public Library, the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, the Archives Center, National Museum of American History and the George Washington University Special Collections.

The team will create online guides for each collection; host two free workshops on minimal processing; and develop graduate, undergraduate, and high school-level courses in which students and faculty will work directly with these newly-available primary resources. 

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Please stay tuned; we will update this site as collections become available and as our student processors blog about their discoveries in these hidden collections!

The D.C. Africana Archives Project is supported by a grant to George Washington University from the Council on Library and Information Resources.  

D.C. Africana Archives Project (GW Magazine, March 26 2014)

University Receives Grant to Establish D.C. Africana Archives Project (GW Today, January 6 2014)