The greater portion of the collection in the Manuscript Division is arranged in general office, administrative, financial, legal, crisis, youth, and branch files. While focused on the welfare of black Americans in the United States, the records include files dealing with Haiti, the Virgin Islands, and the Pan-African Congress. Also included are correspondence and memoranda by various staff members such as Robert Bagnall, Charles Houston, Addie Hunton, Daisy Lampkin, Thurgood Marshall, E. Frederic Forrow, Roy Nash, William Pickens, Herbert Seligmann, John R. Shillady, Arthur and Joel Sprinarn, Moorfield Storey, and Roy Wilkins. Records dating from 1909 to 1970 are described in finding aids, and additions to the collection are anticipated. The use of material from the last thirty years is restricted.
Many images relate to the association's antilynching campaign.
The photographs are arranged by subject. The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.