The Web site includes biographical articles about influential African Americans as well as speeches, reports, and other primary documents relating to the history of African Americans. Civil rights-related documents include speeches by Bayard Rustin, Fannie Lou Chaney, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Biographical articles provide information about national leaders like Thurgood Marshall, James Meredith, and Ralph Abernathy as well as local leaders such as Edwin T. Pratt and Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale. Other articles provide background information on events, such as the 1961 Freedom Rides and the 1966 Seattle School boycott, and organizations, like the National Negro congress and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The site contains audio clips relating to the open housing movement in Seattle and trailers of video programs, including the story of the Pullman Porters and efforts to diversity the University of Washington. A timeline of African Americans is divided into centuries. There are also links to other relevant Web resources.

The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata.