Center for Black Music Research (1983-2019) & Library/Archive (1990- 2019)
Columbia College Chicago
Established and directed by Dr. Samuel A. Floyd, Jr. (1927-2016), the renowned Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) is one of the most comprehensive collections of music, recordings, and research materials devoted to Black music in the world. The Center documented the entire spectrum of Black music across time, styles, genres from different regions of the world and various cultures. Its holdings are extensive. As of 2018, the collection featured more than 47,000 sound recordings in all formats (cylinders, records [78s, LPs, 45s], tapes [reel-to-reel, cassette,], CDs, and CD-Rs);100+ individual archival collections of primary resources, including scrapbooks, correspondence, business and professional records, photographs, conductors’ scores, manuscripts and more; 15,000+ scores, images, concert programs, and newspaper clippings; and 8,700 secondary resources, including printed books, dissertations, and serials.
Beyond preserving records of past music traditions, it was also seeking to generate and disseminate new knowledge and scholarship about Black music traditions through a book series at University of California Press, and record series through Albany Records. It hosted several national and international biannual conferences highlighting scholarly research on Black music; sponsored several postgraduate research fellowships for scholars studying the music of the African Diaspora, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation; offered two National Endowment for the Humanities funded seminars for college teachers on African American music; established the Alton Augustus Adams Music Research Institute in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands to study and document Black music throughout the Caribbean; created four professional ensembles to perform Black music which performed nearly 200 concerts locally and on national tour, recorded eight nationally broadcast radio shows and presented lecture demonstrations in schools; and acquired some funding from the MacArthur Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
Although the Center is no longer staffed with Black music specialists and is no longer as easily accessible as it was until 2019, researchers can make appointments to visit the collections and the Library/Archive has begun to establish an online presence.