The Black Abolitionist Archives is an historical research center devoted to the black abolitionists. Some 300 black men and women were regularly involved in the movement, heightening its credibility and broadening its agenda. They shaped the struggle into America’s first civil rights movement. The collection housed in the archives contains a wealth of materials that document the lives of the black abolitionists, including some 14,000 documents, an extensive microfilm library, a clippings file, and a library of scholarly books, articles and dissertations. The archives function as a multi-purpose research center to promote the study of black abolitionists. Dr. James O. Horton of the Smithsonian Institution’s Afro-American Communities Project has called it "the most extensive primary source collection on antebellum black activism."