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The extensive collection documents the life and work of Richmond-born photographer and educator Louis Draper (1935–2002). Manuscript and photographic materials document Draper's experience and work as an African American photographer, including his recognition of his photography as a form of "engaged resistance" that not only bore witness to leaders of the civil rights movement, but also offered a richer and more diverse perspective of African American life than provided by the mainstream media. In 1963, he was a founding member of the Kamoinge Workshop, a collective of African American photographers, and the collection includes significant materials from the early years of the Kamoinge Workshop and document his perspective on the professional challenges that he and the collective confronted in the process of finding publications that would publish photographs of African Americans made by African Americans. His photographs of significant 20th-century artists, writers, musicians, and performers reflect the wide array of personal connections that Draper made after moving to New York from Richmond, Virginia in 1957. Printed photographs and contact sheets in Draper's archive show a broad view of city life and the everyday interactions between people and also offer a unique vision of African American neighborhoods in the 1960s and 1970s.

The collection documents the life, work, and research interests of Dr. Regenia Perry (1941-), an African American art historian. Dr. Perry is the first African American woman to hold doctorates in art history and American art, and has focused her career on researching and collecting African American folk art. In addition to her work as a professor, Dr. Perry served as a guest curator for The Metropolitan Museum's "Selection of Nineteenth-Century Afro-American Art," the first comprehensive exhibition of African American art at the museum.