The Institute for Arts and Media has over one million images produced by Los Angeles-based photographers that document the social, cultural and political lives of minorities in Los Angeles and the Southern California region between the 1930s to the present, representing one of the largest collections of African American photographs west of the Mississippi and the most extensive collection in Southern California. Represented in the collections are images of African American communities, Civil Right leaders, jazz musicians, celebrities, Chicano and Mexican American leaders, the United Farmworkers Union, César Chávez, Latin America, the Afro-Columbian community Palenque de San Basilio, and California sports and events.
