Beginning in the late 1970s, Columbia students urged the university to divest from companies doing business in South Africa in protest of South Africa's system of apartheid. After a series of student protests culminating in a month long blockade of Hamilton Hall in 1985, the Trustees voted to begin full divestment. The collection contains the administrative records of this decision making process in the 1970s-1980s.

Marable was a leading figure in African-American studies as well as a historian, social theorist, and political activist. The collection includes appointment books, biographical information, budgets, clippings, correspondence, drafts, lecture notes, manuscripts, photographs, proposals, reports, speeches, syllabi, and teaching materials.

Marie Runyon was an activist and former New York State legislator. Born in North Carolina in 1915, she moved to Morningside Heights and in 1963 began a decades long fight against Columbia University over its real estate practices and expansion in the neighborhood. Runyon founded the Morningside Tenants Committee as well as other tenants' organizations, and she brought a number of cases to court to prevent her eviction from her apartment at 130 Morningside Drive. She also worked for many political and service organizations throughout her career.

The collection consists of manuscripts by Sekara and printed materials. The manuscripts primarily deal with Sekara's military career during the Civil War. There is a copy of "Sumskie gusary 1651-1951" (Buenos Aires, 1954) to which various clippings and notes have been appended. In addition, there are a few dozen issues of the journals "The Sentinel" and "Voennai︠a︡ byl ́(The Military Past) dating from the 1950s to 1974.

The David Lloyd collection on Lao She consists of records relating to the publications and translations of Lao She's work during and after his stay in New York, dating from 1946 to 1957. Materials in the collection include correspondence, accounts, manuscripts, and a portrait of Lao She.

The Andrew Sarris Papers are comprised of correspondence, drafts and manuscripts, clippings, printed ephemera, periodicals, monographs, photographs, and audio recordings related to the career and personal life of renowned film critic Andrew Sarris. The materials span several decades, from the inception of his career as a film critic and theorist in the mid-1950s to the last years of his long tenure at The Village Voice in the late 1980s..

John Leonard (1939 -2008) was an American literary and cultural critic best known for his extensive writing on literature, television, media, politics and American culture and his work as head editor of The New York Times Book Review in the 1970s. The John Leonard papers include drafts of Leonard's reviews, essays, essay collections, and works of fiction and nonfiction. The collection also includes his correspondence with prominent literary and cultural figures, his research and business files, personal memorabilia, photographs, signed artwork, printed matter, posthumous tributes to Leonard, and audio-visual material.

The K.P. Chen papers documented the banking and finance career of a banker, entrepreneur, and finance advisor, Kwang Pu Chen dating from 1936 to 1968. Materials in the papers include accounts, loan contracts, correspondence, telegrams, diaries, financial reports, , letters, news clippings, notes, photographs, press releases, printed materials, and reports.

The Li Huang papers (李璜檔案) contain manuscripts of his political writings dating from 1929 to 1971, as well as reference materials for his memoir. The reference materials include collected books, periodicals, reports, letters, photographs, and news clippings. The collection mainly reflects Li Huang's political thoughts and his opposition to communism.

The collection consists of correspondence, a diary, manuscripts, memoirs, notes, a subject file, photographs and printed materials. Correspondence is primarilly addressed to Orlov and his wife. Manuscripts and memoirs, chiefly by Orlov, deal with Civil War topics. Orlov's diary covers the years 1918-1921. Notes are on World War II, and the subject file concerns the death of Orlov. Photographs include a group picture of a Gallipoli Society meeting in Prague. Printed materials include clippings, mimeographed materials, pamphlets and copies of periodicals, all relating to the Gallipoli Society.