North American Urban Documents, 1950–1999

More than 5 million pages of previously undigitized documents open a window onto the social history of the second half of the twentieth century. The content comes from more than 900 organizations across North America.

In addition, all the reports and publications listed in the Index to Current Urban Documents will now be fully digitized and included, making the hard-to-access microfiche searchable and easily available.

The social history of a continent in flux, told through the eyes of its communities

Let the streets speak. Let the neighborhoods tell their story. Rediscover the urban past through the voices that shaped it.

The voices of communities

The second half of the twentieth century reshaped North American cities—and redefined how people lived, worked, moved, and resisted.

From racial justice protests to public housing debates, suburban sprawl to industrial collapse—the decisions made in living rooms, the streets, city halls, police stations, and planning commissions left lasting imprints.

More than five million pages of:

• city and county reports
• neighborhood assessments
• migration and resettlement studies
• transportation infrastructure studies
• civil disturbance reports
• policing and crime appraisals
• neighborhood newsletters
• community programs
• statistical studies
• U.S. Housing and Urban Development city reports
• U.S. Commission on Civil Rights city reports
• meetings and minutes
• directories
• planning codes and ordinances
• budgets and financial materials
• census data
• industrial development and use studies

These materials were never widely distributed

This exclusive archive preserves not only plans and policies, but the voices of communities.

It's not just a collection about zoning maps and transportation grids—it's a record of people, families, neighborhoods, and communities facing big questions of modern life.

How will you use it?

The collection presents social history as seen through the eyes of communities, neighborhoods, and civic institutions. Exclusive accounts from inside town halls, police departments, neighborhood groups, and youth centers are here alongside official publications. Together, they show the connections between policy and lived experience.

Essential material for studying:

• Sociology and social justice—community organizing against poverty, displacement, segregation, police violence
• African American and Black studies—racial equity, political organizing, economic empowerment, Black Power Movement, Civil Rights Movement
• Latino and Hispanic studies—political and cultural mobilization of Latino communities, Chicano student activism, bilingual education, labor organizing, neighborhood advocacy groups
• Migration and immigration studies—local planning efforts, Hmong and Cuban resettlement studies, reports on Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Southeast Asian populations
• Labor studies and 1960s radical movements—grassroots labor movements, youth activism, women’s liberation groups, New Left coalitions
• Economics and business—strategies to attract, retain, or revive local industries and employment
• Public health and education—school desegregation, child welfare programs, community clinics, mental health initiatives
• Environmental studies—pollution, land use, green space, environmental justice, sustainability
• History and political science—interaction with (or resistance to) federal programs like the War on Poverty and Model Cities
• Criminology and legal studies—crime, policing, incarceration, justice system reform
• Central American and Caribbean studies—migration, including communities fleeing civil war; populations navigating housing, education, and labor barriers; communities organizing for economic opportunities, education access, and political representation