In addition to its regular holdings, the North Carolina Central University School of Law Library has several special collections.
The Julius Chambers Collection was established in 2021 in honor of the civil rights leader and former Chancellor of North Carolina University. Julius Chambers, born in 1936 in Mount Gilead, North Carolina, was a civil rights attorney, activist and educator. He graduated from North Carolina Central University in 1958 with a B.A. in History. He then attended the University of Michigan and earned a M.A. in History. In 1959, Chambers began law school at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he became the first African American editor-in-chief of the law review. He graduated first in his class in 1962. Thereafter, he earned a LL.M from Columbia University Law School. Chambers was the first intern for the NAACP Legal Defense Education Fund from 1963-64. In 1964, he opened a law practice in Charlotte that became the first integrated law firm in North Carolina. His law firm influenced several landmark rulings on voting rights, employment, and school desegregation, including Swann v Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education. In 1993, Chambers returned to North Carolina to become Chancellor of his alma mater, North Carolina Central University, a position he held for eight years. Julius Chambers was a leader in the fight for civil rights and equality throughout his illustrious career. He died on August 2, 2013 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The John D. Fassett Collection was established in 2012 by former United States Supreme Court Clerk John D. (Jack) Fassett. Mr. Fassett graduated from Yale Law School at the top of his class in 1953. Chosen by Supreme Court Justice Stanley Reed to serve as one of his two clerks, he was deeply involved in the workings of the Court during the 1953-1954 term, when the groundbreaking school desegregation decisions were handed down. The John D. Fassett Collection is a comprehensive collection of writings by and about Supreme Court Justices and the workings of the court. It has over 950 volumes that range in publication date from 1852 to the present. Mr. Fassett, as a result of his experience at the court, started collecting the volumes in the 1950’s and continued to collect both new and used volumes through 2011, when he donated the collection to the NCCU School of Law. In addition to the collection, Mr. Fassett also donated memorabilia from his term on the court and items related to Brown v. Board of Education. Some of this memorabilia, along with a video presentation about the collection, are on display in the breezeway on the first floor of the law school.
The Fassett Collection is located on the first floor of the library.
The Jack Greenberg Collection was established in 2012 by former NAACP Legal Defense and Education Assistant Counsel Jack Greenberg. Mr. Greenberg received his A.B. and J.D./LL.B. from Columbia. As Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Mr. Greenberg assisted Thurgood Marshall in leading education and demonstration cases before succeeding Mr. Marshall as Director-Counsel in 1984. After his tenure as Director-Counsel, Mr. Greenberg served as Dean and Vice Dean at Columbia College and founded the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund. The Jack Greenberg Collection consists of briefs and supporting documents for cases in the United States Supreme Court and other lower courts related to landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education.
This collection consists of court documents, briefs, U.S. legislative and government documents, and various association documents from between the years 1940 – 1990. Many of these documents are fragile and require special handing to view. In order to protect the documents of this collection, no photocopying of the materials is allowed.
Court document boxes 1 – 5 are appellate level briefs, memoranda, and other court materials from cases occurring between the late 1940s to the 1980s. The list includes information such as date, party names, type of document, and the name of the attorney (or attorneys) involved. Government document and association boxes A – C contain information on important legislative, agency, and association documents from the 1950s to the 1980s. This list includes information such as date, title of the document, and the name of the agency or association that published the document.
This collection is non-circulating and requires pre-authorization for access. Contact the Access Services Librarian at 919-530-6608 for more information on accessing this collection.
The McKissick Collection was established in honor of alumnus and civil rights leader, Floyd B. McKissick, Sr. Although Mr. McKissick, with the backing of Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP, filed a suit to gain admittance to UNC’s law school, Mr. McKissick enrolled in North Carolina College’s law school (now North Carolina Central University School of Law) while waiting for his suit to move through the courts. During Mr. McKissick’s final year of law school at NCC, he was finally admitted to UNC-Chapel Hill; however he had technically completed his law degree at NCC. He was awarded a law degree from UNC’s law school in 1951 and was the first African-American to receive a Doctor of Laws degree from UNC School of Law. After completing law school, Mr. McKissick advocated for civil rights locally and nationally through his law practice. He later worked as the National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality and was the founder of Soul City, NC, a planned community where Mr. McKissick envisioned all could live in harmony. The titles in this collection have a topical orientation toward civil rights issues. Specific areas of focus include: desegregation in higher education, housing discrimination, and discrimination based upon race.
The McKissick Collection is located on the first floor of the library outside of the Fassett Director's Suite.
The Papers of the NAACP is an expansive microfilm collection covering meeting minutes, correspondence, campaigns, general office files, legal department files, committee papers and many other documents relating to the NAACP. The extensive files from the national office date from 1909 to 1972. The documents chronicle crucial events of the civil rights movement including the Freedom Rides, the Sit-In Campaigns, the March on Washington, and the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Papers of the NAACP also include detailed records from local NAACP branches. These branch files provide extensive documentation on the local networks of civil rights activists who worked with the NAACP at the grass-roots level.
The Papers of the NAACP microfilm collection is located in the microform room. To access the microform room, please see a member of the circulation staff. The Papers of the NAACP have also been digitized and are available online through ProQuest’s History Vault. For more information on using ProQuest to access this collection, please contact a reference librarian.
The NCCU School of Law Library has been a selective depository in the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) since 1979. The Law Library’s Government Documents Collection includes selected print, microfiche, and electronic resources that the Law Library receives free of charge from the Government Publishing Office (GPO). Print resources are located on the first and second floors of the Law Library, and the microfiche resources are located in the Microforms Room on the ground floor of the Law School. The microfiche collection, which is uncataloged, is composed mainly of congressional hearings and documents and reports of various federal agencies. For assistance in accessing the documents collection, please consult the reference librarians.