The Thomas A. Fleming papers contain materials related to Fleming's teaching career, his work as an administrator at Eastern Michigan University, and his personal papers and research files. The collection is arranged into two series: OFFICE FILES and PERSONAL PAPERS.

The OFFICE FILES series has three subseries, one for each stage of Fleming's teaching career. The Eastern Michigan University subseries is comprised of files associated with his work in Academic Affairs; certificates of recognition; membership, agendas, and meeting minutes of task forces and committees; conference proceedngs; events; newsletters; presentations; programs and initiatives;and reports. The High Scope Educational Research Foundation subseries holds materials illustrating Fleming's work as a field consultant, including reports and workshop planning. The Washtenaw Intermediate School District (WISD) subseries contains materials from Fleming's tenure as a teacher at the WJ Maxey Boys Training School and the Washtenaw County Juvenile Court School Reform Program. These files include correspondence, curriculum, and student-created newsletters entitled The Hustler and The Jailbird Jive Machine, which served as a combination newspaper and showcase for student writing and art. Also included are meeting minutes, information on alternative education and the Roberto Clemente Alternative School in Ann Arbor, MI, and Fleming's teaching resume from the Maxey School. This series holds the records of Fleming's 1992 Teacher of the Year Award - application materials, clippings and press, correspondence, a VHS with news coverage of the award presentation, and student and colleague testimonials. There is also a file of Fleming's work with the University of Michigan Minority Affairs Adisory committee.

The PERSONAL PAPERS series contains files related to Fleming's ministry, certificates of tribute issued by the Governor of Michigan;0 conferences and events; correspondence; news articles; an interview audio recording; Fleming's work with the Miliken Award; military records; NAACP meetings; photographs; service awards; speaking engagements with supporting documents such as arrangements and scripts; Fleming's academic transcript from William Tyndale College; and his personal writings. A large part fo this series is a subseries of Research Files. Fleming was an avid reader and a collector of news articles, magazines, newsletters, and zines related to his interests. The majority of these files focus on Black Americans and their experiences in education and society. Also present are files related to goings on in Southeast Michigan and general research into teaching methodology. Notable materials include The Conveyor, a newsletter focused on Black social issues in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor and Right On, a newsletter of the Ann Arbor Model Cities Program, a federal program focused on comprehensive physical and socioeconomic improvements to the country’s most impoverished neighborhoods, with meaningful community participation in planning. The Model Cities experiment was to develop new anti-poverty programs and alternative forms of municipal government. Model Cities represented a new approach that emphasized social programs as well as physical renewal, and sought to coordinate the actions of numerous government agencies in a multifaceted attack on the complex roots of urban poverty.