Located on 14th Street in Downtown Oakland, California, United States, the museum contains an extensive archival collection of such artifacts as diaries, correspondence, photos, and periodicals.

Among more than 160 collections in the library are archives relating to Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the Black Panthers, Africa, and genealogy.

Materials include photographs, manuscripts, letters, diaries, newspapers, recorded oral histories, videos, and microfilms.

[5] AAMLO's collections include: Ida Jackson - Oakland's first African American schoolteacher Ron Dellums - Congressman and mayor of Oakland, California Marcus Foster - Superintendent of Oakland Schools assassinated in 1973 Barbara Lee - Bay Area Congresswoman Morrie Turner - Cartoonist, creator of the comic strip Wee Pals Henry Delton Williams - Hollywood and Motown designer Eugene and Ruth Lasartemay and Jesse and Marcella Ford began collecting artifacts and documents creating the private collection in 1946.

Initially housed in a small shop front on Grove Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Way), the collection grew quickly and in 1982, was moved into the Oakland Public Library's Golden Gate Branch.