This collection consists of materials Chester Owens has gathered about the Kansas City, Kansas region and the history of African Americans in the region, as well as materials regarding his own political career as a Kansas City, Kansas city councilman. Much of the collection concerns H.W. Sewing, businessman and founder of Douglass State Bank.

This collection contains miscellaneous papers concerning Ella Mae Jackson's role in the African-American community's struggle for school integration in Kansas City, Kansas in the 1960s; including newspaper clippings and certificates of her sons' school achievements, and a 1973 souvenir booklet of her cousins', Arthur and Martha Williams, 50th wedding anniversary.

The Friends of Yates Branch Papers are those of a Kansas City, Kansas group begun in 1979 to raise funds for the Yates Branch YWCA. After the city's YWCA closed the Branch, the Friends continued many of that organizations community programs.

The Lorenzo Drake family papers are those of a long time Kansas City, Kansas family headed by Lorenzo and Rosa Anna [Smith] Drake.

The Papers of Orrin M. Murray are those of a native Quindaro, Kansas historian and educator.

This collection contains photographs created by various identified and unidentified amateur and commercial photographers, including Carson and Brunston Photo, J.W. Lockett, Carl Fowler, and James R. Cobb. Individuals portrayed in the photographs are African Americans residing in or from the Kansas City, Kansas community of the mid-20th century.

Dr. S.H. Thompson, Sr. was a founder of Douglass Hospital, a facility in Kansas City, Kansas that practiced equal access and care to all patients and hired medical personnel without regard to race or ethnicity. His son, S.H. Thompson, Jr., served as principal of Sumner High School (Kansas City, Kansas) from 1951-1972. The collection includes papers and photographs of both S.H. Thompson, Jr. and Sr., as well as material from other family members.

Susan D. Greenbaum received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Kansas, majoring in sociology and anthropology. She conducted extensive research into cultural groups within Kansas City, Kansas in the late 1970s and early 1980s as research for her degrees. The main focus of this collection is her research material and findings from the Slavic-American neighborhood of Strawberry Hill and the African American community in Northeast Kansas City.

The YWCA, Yates Branch records are those of a Kansas City, Kansas Young Women's Christian Association affiliate organized in 1913 and dissolved in 1982 after it was absorbed by the Kansas City, Kansas Central Branch YWCA.