I believed that next to knowing a people personally, one can know them most through art and especially literary art, where the complexity of human beings is explored at the fullest possible range.
Edward Clark
Professor Emeritus of English, Suffolk University

The Collection of African American Literature is a collaborative effort between Suffolk University, the Museum of African American History, and the National Park Service’s Boston African American National Historic Site. It was founded in 1971 by Dr. Edward Clark, professor emeritus of English at Suffolk University.

In the late 1960s, in the aftermath of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Professsor Clark began gathering books to support Suffolk University courses which he hoped would grow into a collection that would help to promote multi-cultural harmony. The collection aims to gather the complete works of all black American writers from the earliest, in the eighteenth century, to the present, along with related works by writers of all races. A special interest of the collection is black writers associated with New England - those born here or who have studied, lived, or worked here.

By 2007, the collection had grown to over 6,000 volumes, including the works of some 1,200 African American authors. The Collection’s strengths are in twentieth century fiction, poetry, literary criticism and studies with a limited amount of non-fiction in history and the social sciences. It contains no genealogical information.

The Collection is housed at the Mildred F. Sawyer Library and is currently directed by Robert Bellinger, Associate Professor of History, College of Arts and Sciences, Suffolk University.

Dictionary Catalog of the Collection of African American Literature in the Mildred F. Sawyer Library of Suffolk University, compiled in 1996 by the Collection’s founder, Dr. Edward Clark, may be purchased from the library for $20.00 US. A copy of the Catalog may be found in the Sawyer Library Reference section as well as at the Moakley Law Library.

This catalog includes a master record of individual titles, through 1995, and an introduction detailing the historical background of the collection.

The companion volume, Black Writers in New England: A Bibliography, with Biographical Notes, of Books By and About Afro-American Writers Associated with New England in the Collection of African American Literature, was written by Edward Clark in 1985. It is also available for purchase at $10.00 US.