Black History Resources

Judge Cobb remains the only African-American judge in New Hampshire history. The Cobb collection contains family correspondence during Cobb's years in the US Army during the Korean War, reflecting his close relationship to his wife; the collection also includes photographs of his family and military life and two bound volumes of military newspapers which he edited. Some of this collection has been digitized and is accessible through the Scholars Repository.

Valerie Cunninghan is the founder of the Black Heritage Trail in Portsmouth and a long-time historian of African-American history in northern New England. Her papers reflect the width and breadth of her work in these areas.

This collection is also known as the Rock Rest collection, reflecting the material directly related to Rock Rest as an inn for African-Americans in Kittery Point. The majority of the papers consist of correspondence and personal belongings and ephemera collected by the Sinclairs, their families and friends. Collection includes a Green Book from 1949.

This collection includes files compiled by Valerie Cunningham, President of the Black Heritage Trail, Inc., which spearheaded the restoration of the Pearl Street Church, the only historic African-American church structure in New Hampshire. It includes correspondence, grant proposals, fundraising and publicity materials, research materials, articles and newsclippings, financial materials and photographs.

This collection consists primarily of papers collected by Valerie Cunningham and others associated with the trail over the years. There are photocopies of research material, handwritten notes, drafts of publications and educational materials, letters, emails, bills, invoices, and articles. The majority of the collection is about the foundation of the Trail itself, including the background research on Black Portsmouth that resulted in the creation of the self-guided walking tour and published resource book.

While this collection is known for material about the Hills’ alien abduction, the collection contains a small amount of material from Barney’s work with the New Hampshire NAACP, including an investigation about Pease Air Force African-American airmen facing housing discrimination.

The collection contains a variety of materials relating to domestic intelligence gathering in the early 1940s, with some reports on African-American soldiers and workers in the Boston area.