The Kenneth W. Porter Papers primarily consist of his manuscripts and research materials pertaining to African-American and Native American studies. Porter's interests in socialism, poetry and literature, folklore, and general American and European history are documented. Aspects of his personal life are represented in the papers as well. Porter's most significant work. The collection consists of numerous versions of his unpublished manuscript, "Black Riders: The Negro on the Frontier of the Cattle Country," a study examining the role of African Americans in the Far West. He wrote about African-American cowboys and their relationships with American whites and Native Americans, in addition to African Americans who lived in the cattle country, but did not work directly with cattle. Reference material consists of correspondence, notes, printed matter and numerous index card notes. Porter wrote several manuscripts about Black Seminoles living in Florida, Texas, and Mexico, their wars with the United States, and war chiefs and leaders. Seminole material includes manuscripts, correspondence, index card notes, reference articles written by other researchers as well as other articles published by Porter, and microfilm publications of material primarily housed by the National Archives (Sc Micro R6765). Included in the series are correspondence, research material and manuscripts for entries Porter either wrote or contributed ideas to for the "Dictionary of American Negro Biography." This series concludes with a large amount of material that pertains to African Americans, Native Americans, and general American and European history that cannot be identified as belonging to any of Porter's manuscripts. The type of matter includes correspondence, manuscripts, research notes, numerous index card notes, news clippings, articles by other researches, and Porter's published articles and book reviews. The American and European Manuscript Research Material series contains material which is not related to Porter's interests in African-American and Native American history. The writings subseries includes Porter's Master's thesis about French history, his published articles about Oregon business history and the fur trade, and research material and manuscripts for his other studies. The folklore subseries consists of correspondence, research notes, manuscripts, book reviews, newsclippings, and other printed matter reflecting Porter's interests in American, European, and Australian folklore. His socialist and literary correspondents spanning a period of more than half a century document the breadth of Porter's wide range of thinking and interests. General correspondence completes the collection.
