The collection contains correspondence, speeches, writings, organization files, newspaper clippings, and photographs. Correspondence with local and national educators, government officials, civil rights activists, historians, and others documents Shepard's professional life at the North Carolina College for Negroes and his civic involvement. Slight correspondence with family members is also present. Speeches and writings address a variety of topics including race relations, World War II, and education. Organization files represent more than 200 local, state, and national civic associations, fraternal orders, businesses, and educational institutions with which Shepard was affiliated chiefly as a board or committee member. The organization materials document Shepard's concerns with social and economic conditions in North Carolina and his involvement in higher education and state government. World War II materials pertain to Shepard in his roles as a spokesperson for African Americans in North Carolina and as one of two African Americans appointed to the North Carolina Appeals Board for men drafted into military service. Newspaper clippings represent a variety of publications and a broad range of perspectives on contemporary issues including, but not limited to, race relations and education. Among the persons significant in the collection are John C.B. Ehringhaus, Clyde A. Erwin, Miles Mark Fisher, John Hope Franklin, E. Franklin Frazier, Gordon B. Hancock, N.C. Newbold, Walter F. White, and Plummer Bernard Young.