The Midwest
The American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress includes The Chicago Daily News Collection, which comprises more than 55,000 images of urban life captured on glass plate negatives between 1902 and 1933 by photographers employed by the Chicago Daily News, then one of Chicago's leading newspapers. The Chicago Historical Society encourages use of these images to the extent permitted under the fair use clause, but it does ask that a credit line be included with each image used. Excellent download quality.
Kansas City Public Library The Missouri Valley Special Collections is the non-circulating local history and genealogy resources of the Kansas City Public Library. Among its collections it is the home of the the Ramos collection, which is comprised of books, pamphlets, and clippings on African American history and culture. The search term "African American" yielded 60 hits. Download quality is good. There is no information on dowload restrictions; however the library does charge a $10 flat fee for each reproduction order no matter how many images are being ordered. (The cost of each image is calculated separately.)
