The Black Community Resource Centre fonds (BCRC) provides information about the administration, finances, projects, services, and activities of the BCRC from its founding in 1992 to 2021. The fonds also includes extensive documentation on several partnerships between the BCRC and other organizations with whom they partnered on a variety of programs and workshops.

The Black Community Resource Centre fonds consists mostly of textual records that detail the administrative process of the organization and the daily activities of the BCRC. The fonds contains partnership agreements, meeting minutes, agendas, bulletins, newsletters, correspondence, annual reports, financial records, project evaluations, presentation slides, and job descriptions, among other administrative documents. In addition, the fonds includes photographs, posters, and promotional materials for several events and programs offered by the BCRC and other organizations, including but not limited to the School Readiness Program, Volunteer Bureau, House of King and Queens, and A Taste of the Caribbean festival. It also contains research documentation and other materials preserved by the BCRC for use in their resource centre.

The Black Community Resource Center fonds is divided into 4 series:

• F045/A Administration
• F045/B Financial Records
• F045/C Projects, Events and Partnerships
• F045/D Reference Documentation

The Black Studies Centre fonds contains materials documenting the administration, services, and activities of the Black Studies Centre from its beginnings as the National Black Coalition Quebec Institute of Research until 2014. The fonds also documents the Centre’s role within Montreal’s Black communities, as well as its relationships to other organizations working within and outside Montreal. In addition, the Black Studies Centre fonds is an important source of reference documentation pertaining to the history, culture, and contributions of Black communities in Canada: it contains a rich collection of newspapers, periodicals, and books, dating from 1969 to 2012, including but not limited to copies of Contrast (1969-1999), Community Contact (1998-2008), Afro-Can (1981-1984), Focus Umoja (1974-1978), Uhuru (1969-1970), and Umoja (1969-1970, 1990), as well as books that were previously held in the collection of the Black Studies Centre’s Library.

The fonds is divided into the following series:
F034/A Administration
F034/B Financial records
F034/C External relations
F035/D Programming and Services
F035/E Research
F035/F Reference documentation

The Black Studies Centre fonds contains, among other documents, meeting minutes, agendas, reports, policies, correspondence, letters patent, statistics, photographs, architectural plans, deeds of sale, insurance policies, permits, contracts, agreements, organizational charts, resumes, job descriptions, lists, financial documents, grant applications, brochures, by-laws, directories, newspapers and newspaper articles, press releases, newsletters, leaflets, flyers, invitations, catalogs, notes, index cards, moving images, sound recordings, posters, biographies, schedules, attendance records, stories, poems, song texts, drawings, forms, costumes, research papers, bibliographies, bibliographic records, interview transcripts, reproductions of historical documents, speeches, summaries of newspaper articles, accession records, subscriptions, a guest book, books, magazines, periodicals, and a musical instrument.

The Black Theater Workshop fonds is composed of materials created and compiled by the Black Theater Workshop (BTW) and contains materials documenting the activities and operations of the BTW from its founding in 1972 to 2016. Textual records and other materials document the BTW's administration, finances, awards, plays, programming, promotional activities, communications, and facilities, among other things. Documents are also reflective of the BTW's contributions to Montreal’s Black communities and to theater in Canada.

The fonds is divided into the following series :
F034/A Administration
F034/B Financial records
F034/C External relations
F034/D Productions / Programming

The fonds is composed of financial documents, grant applications, board meeting minutes, reports, play scripts, newspapers and newspaper clippings, promotional material, correspondence; graphic materials such as photographs, posters, logos, drawings, sound recordings, moving images, and some objects, among others.

Collection provides information on jazz music in Montreal from the 1930s through the 1960s. The collection complements other fonds and collections housed in the Concordia University Archives and Concordia University Library, Special Collections.

The collection includes swizzle sticks and other memorabilia from Montreal jazz night clubs such as Rockhead's Paradise, the Rainbow Bar Café, and Dinty Moore's. It also contains sound recordings, photographs of Rockhead's Paradise and owner Rufus Rockhead, sheet music, videotape copies of televisions shows on jazz musicians Oliver Jones, Paul Bley, and Oscar Peterson, and a copy of the book Montreal Confidential by Al Palmer.

The Desmond Rupert Adams fonds consists of personal, family, and studio photographs including studio portraits, commercial assignments and personal explorations. The majority of the photographs are portraits. Some photographs depict Expo '67, the Olympic games in Montreal 1976, and street life in Montreal.

The fonds contains a variety of photographic formats, art works, and exhibition prints. There are photo albums, some audio-visual documents and some studio client files.

The Franklyn Harvey collection contains books, periodicals, and other documents that composed the library of Franklyn Harvey. This material is indicative of Harvey's interest and involvement in the Caribbean left and serves as a catalogue documenting, among other topics, the Caribbean left; activism in the Caribbean; politics, economic growth, change, and renewal in the Caribbean; political economy; communism; socialism; nationalism; power; and poverty.

The Franklyn Harvey collection contains 275 textual documents, mostly in English, 4 optical discs, and 1 map.

The Graeme Clyke fonds consists of materials created and accumulated by Graeme Baxter Clyke related to the Negro Community Centre (NCC), Union United Church, Royal Arthur School, Little Burgundy, and Saint-Henri. Photographs showcase programs and activities offered at NCC, including dance and music lessons, arts and crafts, wood working, sports, summer camps, and games. They also depict NCC staff, including but not limited to Stanley Clyke, Emily Clyke, Lawrence Sitahal, Daisy Peterson Sweeney, Martha Griffiths, and Mrs. Palmas. Photographs also show the interior and exterior of the NCC, Union United Church, Royal Arthur School, and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (U.N.I.A.). They also depict many other buildings around Little Burgundy and Saint-Henri. Students and teachers at the NCC and Royal Arthur School appear throughout the photographs, as do members of the Union United Church. Textual records in the fonds consist of those documenting the administration of the NCC, including its programs, activities, and services, and the memorial service of Roy States.

The Graeme Clyke fonds is divided into 4 series:
• F027/A Negro Community Centre
• F027/B Union United Church
• F027/C Royal Arthur School
• F027/D Little Burgundy and Saint-Henri

The fonds consists of materials assembled by Herb Johnson. It reflects his career as a musical performer, combo and dance band/orchestra leader, and musicians' union member and executive, as well as his personal interests and personal life.

The fonds documents the dance band and jazz music scene from the 1930s through the 1980s, primarily in Montreal. It is a valuable source of documentation on the bebop style of jazz that emerged in the 1940s, and of documentation related to the Senior Musicians' Association and Orchestra.

The fonds consists of manuscript and print music, including arrangements by Herb Johnson; personal correspondence; saxophone and clarinet technique books and articles; books and articles on arranging, harmonizing, and other facets of music; photographs; notebooks; personal financial records; programs, clippings, and other memorabilia; and magazines. The fonds includes sound recordings as well as objects including music portfolios, pocket handkerchiefs, and a record carrying case. There are also union-related correspondence, financial documents, contracts and other documents related to musicians' pay and benefits, founding documents, constitutions and by-laws, questionnaires, ballot papers, agendas, minutes, and address books.

The fonds is arranged in the following series and sub-series:

P0088/1 Correspondents
P0088/1A Family and friends
P0088/1B Music colleagues
P0088/1C Personal business correspondents
P0088/2 Personal files
P0088/2A Personal interests and personal affairs
P0088/2B Music industry
P0088/2C Music technique
P0088/2D Photographs
P0088/3 Union activity
P0088/3A Musicians' Guild of Montreal
P0088/3B Senior Musicians' Association
P0088/4 Print and manuscript music
P0088/5 Technique books, manuals, tutors, methods
P0088/6 Magazines and promotional literature
P0088/7 Collection of sound recordings
P0088/7A Privately recorded sound recordings
P0088/7B Commercial sound recordings.

The fonds provides information on jazz in Montreal between 1916 and 2007.

The fonds contains the material John Gilmore gathered for his two books. It contains research notes, sound recordings including interviews with musicians and others, photographs, posters, correspondence, and a manuscript of Swinging in Paradise: The Story of Jazz in Montreal.

The fonds is organized in the following series:
P0004/A Research material
P0004/B Manuscripts
P0004/C Reviews
P0004/D Lectures and interviews

The fonds provides information on jazz in Montreal, particularly on radio, during the 1950s and 1960s.

The fonds contains music that Johnny Holmes arranged and conducted, audiotapes of CBC radio broadcasts, photographs of performers, and press clippings.

The Leon Llewellyn fonds documents the life and career of Leon Llewellyn. Significantly, the fonds is composed of documentation pertaining to Montreal's English-speaking Black Community. These materials document the activities and functions of various Black community organizations, including but not limited to, the Negro Community Centre/Charles H. Este Cultural Centre; Black Studies Centre; Quebec Board of Black Educators; Black Community Central Administration of Quebec; Black Community Council of Quebec; National Black Coalition of Canada; Côte-des-Neiges Black Community Association; Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Black Community Association; Côte-des-Neiges Black Community Development Project; Black Theater Workshop; Association of Black Artists; Montreal Black Photography Society; Union United Church; Black Action Party; National Black Coalition Institute of Research in the Black Experience; National Congress of Black Women; Black Community Communications Media; Black Is!; Negro Theater Arts Club; Revue Theater; Black Workers Association; Black Youth Radio; and the Black Youth Television Workshop. Materials related to the Concordia Student Union; Concordia University's Black Student Union; McGill Black Student Union, Caribbean Students' Society of McGill University; and the Black Students' Association of Champlain College are also found in this fonds. Additionally, this fonds contains various issues of prominent community newspapers and magazines, including but not limited to, Uhuru; Focus Umoja; Focus Magazine; Afro-Can; Afro Canadian; Contrast; The Black Voice; Montréal Camera; Community Contact; The Montreal Challenger; The Montreal Oracle; African Awakener; Canadian Tribune; Voice of Montreal; and The Black: A Canadian Journal of Self Expression. It also contains materials related to the publication of the book "Journey into Our Caribbean Past" by Eric Llewellyn.

The Leon Llewellyn fonds is composed of a wide variety of textual and graphic materials, including photographs, negatives, contact sheets, sketches and drawings, greeting cards, newspapers, magazines, correspondence, reports, meeting minutes and agenda, bulletins, invitations, newsletters, pamphlets, flyers, booklets, posters, financial documents, programs, and curricula, among many others. The fonds also contains a few objects.

The Leon Llewellyn fonds is divided into three series:
F032/A Community organizations and events
F032/B Community newspapers and magazines
F032/C Personal papers

The Maurice Tynes fonds contains graphic and textual material documenting Maurice Tynes' service with the Canadian Armed Forces.

The fonds contains 4 black and white photographs and 2 textual records.

The fonds provides information on Montreal's Black jazz scene from the 1920s to the 1960s, chronicling the lives of three women - Tina Baines Brereton, Bernice Jordan Whims, and Olga Spencer Foderingham - who danced in night clubs such as Rockhead's Paradise, The Terminal, and Café St. Michel.

The fonds consists of materials gathered, and in some cases created, during the National Film Board of Canada's production of Show Girls / Les Girls. It includes research notes, edited sequences on videotape, video tapes and transcripts of interviews with the film's principals, audio tapes of interviews with various sources, stock footage, shot lists, clippings of night clubs ads, historical reference books, and VHS copies of the documentary.

The fonds provides an overview of Myron Sutton's musical career in the United States and Canada, particularly Montreal. It documents the careers of the various bands with which Myron Sutton was affiliated, and those he led, including the Royal Ambassadors and the Canadian Ambassadors. It also provides general information on the jazz music scene and Montreal night life during the 1930s.

The fonds consists of sound recordings and a scrapbook containing correspondence, contracts, programs, press clippings, and photographs.

The Negro Community Centre/Charles H. Este Cultural Centre fonds contains records relating to the operation of the Negro Community Centre/Charles H. Este Cultural Centre. It contains textual records and other materials documenting the mission; structure; administration; building and facilities; and programs and services offered at the Centre, dating from its founding in the late 1920s until it ceased its operations. The fonds also contains materials dating to after the closure of the Centre.

The fonds documents the history of the Negro Community Centre/Charles H. Este Cultural Centre, its role in Little Burgundy and the greater Montreal area, and its relationships to other organizations, including but not limited to the Coloured Women's Club of Montreal; Union United Church; Red Feather Services; Federated Appeal of Greater Montreal; and Centraide. The fonds also includes documentation related to the Walker Credit Union and Afro-Can. The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is also mentioned in the documentation.

The Negro Community Centre/Charles H. Este Cultural Centre fonds includes a wide variety of textual records, including but not limited to administrative records; ledgers and other financial records; correspondence; board and committee meeting minutes and related records; reports; calendars, flyers, posters, descriptions and other documentation relating to programs, services, and events taking place at the Centre; photographic materials, including prints and negatives; architectural drawings and plans; clothing; and ephemera.

The Norman Marshall Villeneuve fonds documents Norman Marshall Villeneuve’s career as a jazz musician. It also contains records relating to other Canadian as well as American jazz musicians. Materials in this fonds are dated between 1946 and 2016, with the majority of the documents dating from 1960s to the1980s. Most of the material was created in Toronto, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec.

The fonds includes newspaper clippings, photographs, posters, programs, magazines, drawings and notes.

The fonds is organized into the following series:
F022/A Newspaper clippings and magazines
F022/B Photographs
F022/C Posters
F022/D Correspondence
F022/E Notes

The Peter K. Johnston fonds contains documentation pertaining to the American Jazz musician Harry James (1916-1983) and the Big band era. The fonds primarily documents the musical career of Harry James as bandleader and trumpeter. It also includes information on the Montreal Vintage Music Society (MVMS), and on other jazz musicians, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Metcalf, Oscar Peterson, and Glenn Miller, among many others.

The fonds contains memorabilia, correspondence, magazines, discographies, photographs, newspaper clippings, reference documentation, posters, moving images, and an audio recording, among other material. Some of the documents are arranged in scrapbooks.

The fonds is arranged in the following series :
P0199 / A Harry James
P0199 / B Other Jazz musicians
P0199 / C Peter Johnston as a collector

The Ralph Whims Collection contains documentation concerning Black History in Montreal; the Negro Community Centre; Union United Church, the Coloured Women’s Club; The Red Feather and the Welfare Federation; Railway Porters; the Elks; the documentary film Show Girls; and Jazz in Montreal. The collection is comprised of articles and clippings; photographs; posters, brochures, and programs; books and magazines; and a videocassette.

The Ralph Whims Collection is divided into 4 series:
C012/A Textual records
C012/B Photographs
C012/C Books
C012/D Moving images

The Sur Rodney (Sur) fonds gives an insight into the life and career of Sur Rodney (Sur), from his childhood in Montreal until today. It informs about his family background and early life as part of Montreal’s black community during the 1950s and 1960s. The fonds illustrates Sur Rodney’s work as an artist and activist, and it presents the North-American and more precisely the New York East Village art scene around Sur Rodney (Sur) from the 1960s to 2018, by the means of personal correspondence exchanged with Sur Rodney (Sur), exhibition catalogues, and documents related to The Sur Rodney (Sur) Show (1980) and the All New Sur Rodney (Sur) Show (1981). It also contains information about the AIDS crisis, the organization Visual Aids and Sur Rodney’s implication within this context.

The fonds is organized into the following series:

P0234/A The Adams family and Sur Rodney (Sur)’s personal life
P0234/B The Artist Sur Rodney (Sur) and fellow artists

The fonds includes, but is not limited to, photographs, art works, scrap-books, posters, speaking notes, correspondence, programs, flyers, newspaper clippings, ephemera, publications with contributions by Sur Rodney (Sur), moving images and sound recordings.

The fonds consists of photographs which recall the period during the 1940s when Tina Brereton danced in shows to the accompaniment of jazz music at Café St-Michel in Montreal.

The Velma Weeks Barker collection contains materials related to the life and contributions of Velma Weeks Barker.

This collection contains photographs and textual records. The personal photographs that comprise the collection show Weeks Barker and her family and include photographs taken in Little Burgundy and inside community spaces, including Union United Church. Many of the images were also taken in family spaces. The textual records include newspaper clippings referring to activities occurring at the Negro Community Centre and the Negro Theater Guild. This collection also contains materials related to her husband, Darnley Cecil Barker, including information about his participation in the Canadian Army and his immigration from Barbados to Canada to serve.

The Velma Weeks Barker collection includes the following items:

• 35 photographs
• 1 honorary degree certificate (Concordia University)
• 1 marriage certificate (Union United Church)
• 6 newspaper clippings
• 1 letter

It also includes the following material, which belonged to her husband Darnley Cecil Barker:

• 1 army discharge certificate
• 3 soldier's pay book
• 1 certificate of Canadian citizenship
• 1 tradesman qualifications certificate
• 1 discharge certificate from the Canadian Army

The materials in the fonds document Vernon Isaac’s life as a jazz musician and the Canadian jazz scene of the 1970s to 1990s. The fonds also contains information about Vernon Isaac’s family.

The fonds includes personal documents, photographs of Vernon Isaac’s family, friends and other performers, press clippings, programs, posters, commemorative plaques, and sound and audiovisual recordings of Vernon Isaac.

The fonds is organized into the following series:
P0228/A. Textual records
P0228/B. Scrapbooks, photo albums and other graphic material
P0228/C Audio-visual material
P0228/D Objects