Special Collections at the University of Memphis, also known as the Mississippi Valley Collection, contains approximately 60,000 books on a wide range of topics including regional history, natural history, and culture.  Special Collections is also home to some of the most historically significant primary source materials on the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike, and other civil rights activities in Memphis and surrounding areas.

In 1998, Dr. Hooks donated his personal papers to the University of Memphis.  These papers chronicle his legal, civil rights, and public service career.  The Hooks Institute managed the cataloging of these papers. 

In 2006, the University of Memphis acquired photographs, documents, and other primary source materials from activists of the Fayette County, TN Civil Rights Movement.  That Movement began in 1959 when African Americans demanded the right to vote.  The Hooks Institute acquired these primary source materials and managed their cataloguing.

Both the Hooks Papers and the Fayette County Collection contain contemporaneous records of local and national events, and are invaluable resources on the Civil Rights Movement.