Historiography Coat of Arms with Correspondence and Certificate, 1971

The collection includes materials relating to Potts' personal and professional life. His biographical papers include an unpublished autobiography and material regarding Potts's service as a United States navy recruiter. His family papers include Potts's narrative history of the family, with some correspondence, clippings, ephemera and related matter.

Materials also include Potts's and his wife Muriel, her family, and their children, with data on the Logan family, including notes regarding dismissing Dr. William Miller Logan from military service (circa 1917) for being African American; sheet music autographed by Langston Hughes and school and other papers regarding her teaching career, along with report cards and programs of the children; and some personal correspondence that includes thank you notes from Elizabeth Avery Waring.

Potts family property papers detail ownership and use of land in East Flat Rock, North Carolina, putting it into the United States Soil Bank program and a tree conservation program. Also included is Potts' history of early black families in East Flat Rock, and his history of The Society of Necessity, a mutual aid society for African Americans, and The Kingdom of Happy Land, a community established by emancipated slaves from Mississippi, as well as papers regarding his service as a historian at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. The Charleston, South Carolina real estate papers document Potts' ownership and sale of two properties, one being 54 Montagu Street, sold to Palmer College.

Writings of Potts include speeches and articles on various educational, civil rights, religious and other topics, with many commencement speeches. Longer works include a draft of his master's thesis (1937) regarding growth of African American population in Gary, Indiana, and drafts of his history of the Palmetto Education Association, along with notes on that organization and the Palmetto State Teacher Association.

School materials document Potts's education and teaching in secondary schools in Gary, Indiana, Columbia, South Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina. There is material, as well, regarding his directorship of Avery Institute, and his presidency of Voorhees School and Junior College (later Voorhees College), with information on student unrest at Voorhees (circa 1969), employment of his wife Muriel, and loan of Edwin Augustus Harleston paintings.

Other papers document his affiliation with the Triangle Association of Colleges of South Carolina and Georgia, the Moton College Service Bureau, and the Technical Assistance Consortium to Improve College Services (TACTICS), and other agencies for whom Potts consulted.

Civic and social organization papers include materials regarding Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, the Wolverine Social Club of Flat Rock, North Carolina, and some card clubs.

Miscellaneous materials include plaques, awards, some photographs, newspapers, and printed matter.