Tom & Ethel Bradley Center
CSU Northridge
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330-8300
Director: Dr. Jose Luis Benavides
(818) 677-3037
Email: bradleycenter@csun.edu
Bradley Center Collections
Photography
The Bradley Center holds two dozen photography collections with over one million images from the 1930s to the present. Ten Los Angeles-based African American photographers captured most of the photographs in our collections. The African American Collection documents Black people's social, cultural, and political life in post-war Los Angeles and Southern California. Presented are nationally significant themes such as racial segregation and discrimination, the civil rights movement, African American entertainment and cultural leaders, and major political and cultural events. Outside of Los Angeles is coverage of the wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, the Afro-Colombian community of Palenque de San Basilio (near Cartagena), Cuba, the Masai and the Maya refugee camps in Mexico. There is extensive documentation of the United Farmworkers organization and César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, Gilbert Padilla, Larry Itliong, Philip Vera Cruz, and other union leaders and members. Also included are images of the San Fernando Valley.
Explore Photography Collections
Digital Collections
Available online are the collections of Harry Adams, Guy Crowder, Charles Williams and Julián Cardona. Over the next three years the Institute will add nearly 20,000 images to the online collections of Adams, Crowder and Williams. The images contained in these collections represent an ongoing effort to digitally preserve and exhibit these important works as part of the efforts of the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center and the University Library to support research.
Oral Histories
The Bradley Center has over one hundred oral histories from 1982 to the present. Projects include interviews with African American community leaders, civil rights leaders, activists, musicians, journalists, photographers, and United Farm Workers' leaders and rank-and-file members. Recent projects have focused on Mexicans in Exile, activists and border journalists, Black Power Movement participants, and Black entertainers.
Border Studies
These collections examine the issues surrounding the border between the United States and Mexico. Through photographic collections, oral histories, manuscripts, videos, newspaper archives, and guest lectures, issues such as immigration, human rights, globalization, and economic violence are examined. The Bradley Center has conducted interviews with several members of the group Mexicanos en Exilio (Mexicans in Exile). Included in the Borders Studies Collection is the photography from photojournalist Julián Cardona.