The papers of Harold Curtis Fleming (1922-1992) span the years circa 1950-1993, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period between 1961 and 1987. The collection focuses on Fleming's career with the Potomac Institute and consists of six series of organizational material: Central File, Harold C. Fleming File, James O. Gibson File, Arthur J. Levin File, Project File, and Miscellany. Included in the papers are correspondence, memoranda, annual reports, subject files, proposals, background material, reports, newspaper and magazine clippings, news releases, drafts and published copies of pamphlets and booklets, biographical material, and photographs pertaining to Fleming's work as a civil rights activist. This arrangement has been retained. The Potomac Institute was incorporated in 1961 as an organization devoted to eliminating racial discrimination. It maintained an extensive research program, organized conferences, and published reports, studies, and educational material designed to expand civil rights and foster cooperation among private and public agencies. The institute was dissolved in 1993. The papers were organized and indexed with a coding system prior to their transfer to the Library of Congress.

The Central File consists primarily of general correspondence, but also contains annual reports, minutes and memoranda of the board of directors, and other records that reflect the overall operations of the Potomac Institute. Prominent correspondents include Will D. Campbell, G. W. Foster, Jr., Lloyd K. Garrison, John Hope II, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Burke Marshall, George McMillan, Paul Moore, Jr., Benjamin Muse, John Silard, John G. Simon, and the founders of the Potomac Institute, Stephen R. Currier and Audrey Currier. Numerous civil rights organization are also represented in the series, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, American Friends Service Committee, Anti-defamation League of B'nai B'rith, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Committee against Discrimination in Housing, National Conference of Christians and Jews, National Urban Coalition, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Southern Regional Council.

The next three series consist primarily of correspondence and subject files representing the office files of the three major executive officers of the Potomac Institute. Subjects of interest in the Harold C. Fleming File include the American Institute of Architects, Harry S. Ashmore, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, National Association of Intergroup Relations Officials, New World Foundation, Hazel Brannon Smith, United States-South Africa Leader Exchange Program, the White House conference "To Fulfill These Rights," and files containing Fleming's writings and speeches.

The James O. Gibson File includes material on the Congressional Black Caucus, District of Columbia Black Arts Council and Black Repertory Theatre, as well as a White House conference on national growth.

Subjects of note in the Arthur J. Levin File are folders on housing, an International City Management Association study, and the National Association of Intergroup Relations Officials.

The Project File constitutes the largest series in the collection and primarily chronicles the institute's research activities. Subjects include the promotion of improved race relations as well as affirmative action within all branches of the United States military, school desegregation, equal opportunity in jobs and job training, compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by state and local governments as well as the police, equal opportunity in housing, fairness in zoning and mortgage policies, improvement of inner-city schools, meeting the needs of children of poverty and the underclass, economic development of inner cities, and national youth service. Major project titles include "Operation Compliance," "Council for Equal Business Opportunity," "Teachers and the Children of Poverty," "Central Cities Technical Assistance Project," "Metropolitan Housing Program," and "National Youth Service."

Miscellany consists of three parts: biographical material, photographs, and a scrapbook documenting the history of the Potomac Institute with newspaper and magazine clippings, brochures, and other ephemera.