History: African American Databases

Multidisciplinary database of journal articles (including peer reviewed), books, book chapters, reports, conference proceedings, etc. Coverage: 1887-present.

Focusing predominantly on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and towns and cities in North Carolina this resource presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records, reports and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity.

Publications include: The Canadian Observer, The Christian Recorder; The Colored American; Frederick Douglass’ Paper; The Freedmen’s Record; Frederick Douglass Monthly; Freedom’s Journal; The National Era; The Negro Business League Herald; The North Star; Provincial Freeman; Weekly Advocate.

These newspapers document the African American press in the South from Reconstruction through the Jim Crow era. Written by African Americans for African Americans, this collection provides a unique journalistic record of the African American experience in segregated southern America. Includes complete runs of representative newspapers from the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

Broad coverage of African American history, culture, and daily life. Newspapers from over 35 states. Coverage: 1827-1998.

African American Periodicals, 1825-1995, features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans. Published in 26 states, the publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations bulletins, annual reports and other genres. These diverse periodicals—which have shaped, and in turn been shaped by, African American culture—enable new discoveries on lives of African Americans as individuals, as an ethnic group, and as Americans.

African Americans and Jim Crow, 1883-1922 contains more than 1,000 fully searchable printed works from the beginning of Jim Crow to post-World War I. These works provide insights into African American culture and life during this period of segregation and disenfranchisement and include such topics as African American identity, relationships with peoples of other nations, and literature.

African Americans and Reconstruction, 1865-1883 contains nearly 1,400 fully searchable printed works from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of Jim Crow. It includes documents related to African Americans and citizenship, voting rights, literacy, land rights, employment, and more, including the gaps between written law and practice.

African Newspapers in the World Newspaper Archive contains more than 420,000 pages of content from newspapers published throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The database features 67 titles from Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and other countries.

Age of Emancipation includes numerous rare documents related to emancipation in the United States, as well as Latin America and the Caribbean. This collection supports the study of many areas, including activities of the federal government in dealing with former slaves and the Freedmen's Bureau, views of political parties and post-war problems with the South, documents of the British and French government on the slave trade, reports from the West Indies and Africa, and other topics.

Provides full text coverage of the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Includes nearly 200 journals and 100 books, selective indexing for over 1,700 journals, and abstracts in English of foreign language articles.

People and events in American history and their presentation over time. Commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries. Coverage: 1492-2000. **All films have public performance rights.**

Contains books, maps, artwork, and other primary source materials from the Gilder Lehrman Collection. It is divided into two modules: Module 1 Settlement, Commerce, Revolution and Reform: 1493-1859; and Module 2 Civil War, Reconstruction and the Modern Era: 1860-1945.

A history database through music; formerly American Song. Streaming audio with songs by and about all Americans (immigrants, children, enslaved persons, etc.), and about all aspects of the American experience (civil rights, political campaigns, the Revolutionary War, etc.). Coverage: Precolonial period-present.

Biographical articles of men and women who helped shape the nation. All eras and walks of life. Coverage: varies.

Archives Direct is a suite of collections sourced from The National Archives, Kew - the UK government's official archive.

Collection of databases devoted to disciplines in history and the social sciences. See titles of individual databases for further information. Coverage: Varies by database.

W.A. Scott II founded the Atlanta Daily World at a time when most black Americans lived in the South. He felt that the race problem could only be solved in the South, which required an informed community. Rather than reading news about African-Americans through the optics of a host of prejudiced white papers, he launched his own newspaper to educate, inspire, uplift, and promote the expression of the Southern black community. Coverage: 1931-2003

One of the most widely circulated African American newspapers on the Atlantic Coast. News articles, photos, advertisements, obituaries, cartoons, etc. Full page and article images with searchable full text. Coverage: 1893-1988.

This collection searches a unique set of primary sources from African Americans actively involved in the movement to end slavery in the United States between 1830 and 1865.

Founded by Booker T. Washington to enhance the economic prosperity of the African American community. Assorted documents. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1901-1928.

Comprehensive coverage of the African American experience from the early 18th century to the present. Sourced from more than 19,000 American and global news sources.

Black Studies Center consists of scholarly journals, commissioned overview essays by top scholars in Black Studies, historic indexes, and the full-text of The Chicago Defender newspaper from 1910-1975.

Black Thought and Culture contains 1,303 sources with 1,210 authors, covering the non-fiction published works of leading African Americans. Particular care has been taken to index this material so that it can be searched more thoroughly than ever before. Where possible the complete published non-fiction works are included, as well as interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamphlets, letters and other fugitive material.

Caribbean Newspapers, 1718-1876—the largest online collection of 18th- and 19th-century newspapers published in this region—will provide a comprehensive primary resource for studying the development of Western society and international relations within this important group of islands. This unique resource is essential for researching colonial history, the Atlantic slave trade, Atlantic World research, international commerce, New World slavery and U.S. relations with the region as far back as the early 18th century.

A leading African American newspaper, with more than two-thirds of its readership outside Chicago. News articles, photos, advertisements, obituaries, cartoons, etc. Full page and article images with searchable full text. Coverage: 1909-1975.

Full page and article images with searchable full text from the Chicago daily tribune (published 1847-1858; coverage 1849-1858), Chicago press and tribune (1858-1860), Chicago tribune (1860-1872), Chicago daily tribune (1872-1963), Chicago tribune (1963-current file). The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue in PDF format.

ProQuest History Vault's coverage of the Black Freedom Struggle offers the opportunity to study the most well-known and also unheralded events of the Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century from the perspective of the men, women, and sometimes even children who waged one of the most inspiring social movements in American history. This category consists of the NAACP Papers and federal government records, organizational records, and personal papers regarding the Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century.

Full text of the Cleveland call post from 1934-1991 under all its title variants.

Debates over Slavery and Abolition sheds light on the abolitionist movement, the conflicts within it, the anti- and pro-slavery arguments of the period, and the debates on the subject of colonization. It explores all facets of the controversial topic, with a focus on economic, gender, legal, religious, and government issues.

Digital archive of over 1000 U.S. historical newspapers published during the past four centuries. Includes titles from all 50 states. Coverage: 1690-1922.

Ebony Magazine Archive covers civil rights, education, entrepreneurship and other social topics with an African-American focus. It includes more than 800 issues providing a broad view of African-American culture from its first issue in 1945 through 2014.

The backfiles of more than thirty 20th and 21st-century magazines, each aimed at ethnically specific audiences. Titles range from political publications to those concerned with lifestyle, fashion / beauty, culture, and identity. The collection reflects diverse voices and gives insight into cultural perspectives, societal shifts, and historical events. Titles are presented in color page-image format with article-level metadata and searchable text.

Fannie Lou Hamer was a voting rights activist and civil rights leader. She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, attending the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in that capacity. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1966-1978.

Real and perceived African American radicalism in the 20th century, including the federal scrutiny, harassment, and prosecution to which African Americans of all political persuasions were subjected. From the files of the FBI. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1920-1984.

From feast to famine, explore primary source material documenting the story of food and drink throughout history. The materials in this collection illustrate the deep links between food and identity, politics and power, gender, race and socio-economic status, as well as charting key issues around agriculture, nutrition and food production. Includes cookbooks, advertisements, correspondence, illustrations, government reports, images, and ephemera.

Allows a user to search across all Gale historical digital collections that the library owns or subscribes to: 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection -- 19th Century British Newspapers -- Eighteenth Century Collections Online -- Indigenous Peoples: North America -- Nineteenth Century Collections Online -- Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers -- Picture Post Historical Archive -- Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 -- The Illustrated London News Historical Archive, 1842-2003 -- The Making of the Modern World -- The Times Digital Archive, 1785-1985 -- Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive, 1902-2012.

The Gilded Age provides insight into the key issues that shaped America in the late nineteenth century, including race and ethnicity, immigration, labor, women's rights, American Indians, political corruption, and monetary policy. Contains speeches, letters, diaries, interviews, video clips, artwork, song lyrics, and other ephemera. Coverage: 1865-1902

Quantitative data for all aspects of American history. Electronic version of Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition (Cambridge UP, 2006). Coverage: 1790-1996.

Researchers can access digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and many more primary source materials taken from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections. Includes multiple sub-collections in broad subject areas like Civil Rights; Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War; American Indians and the American West; American Politics and Society; International Relations and Military Conflicts; Women's Studies; and Workers and Labor Unions. Focus of American History primary sources is largely after 1775.

The HistoryMakers Digital Archive is an extensive online database of over 9,000 hours of full-text and video interviews with African-Americans distinguished in the fields of science, culture, politics, the arts, and public life. More content being added each week.

A four-year project to digitize over one million pages from the magazines, journals, newsletters, and newspapers of the alternative press archives of participating libraries spanning the 1960's to the 1980's. Starting with collections by feminists and the GI press, the collection will grow to include small literary magazines, underground newspapers, LGBT periodicals, the minority press (Latino, Black and Native American) and the extreme right-wing press.

The Institution of Slavery explores, in vivid detail, the inner workings of slavery from 1492 to 1888. Through legal documents, plantation records, first-person accounts, newspapers, government records, and other primary sources, this collection reveals how enslaved people struggled against the institution. These rare works explore slavery as a legal and labor system, the relationship between slavery and religion, freed slaves, the Shong Massacre, the Demerara insurrection, and many other aspects and events.

Meredith's efforts to become the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi. FBI documents, correspondence, memoranda, and news clippings. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1961-1962.

Multidisciplinary full-text journal articles from 1,500 major journals. Please note: In many cases, JSTOR does not include the most recent 3 to 5 years of these journals. Please use other databases to retrieve recent articles, especially for current events topics. Coverage: Varies by title. Access is available to 2007+ alumni; requires W&M userid and password.

Black nationalism and pan-Africanism. FBI documents, correspondence, ephemera, reports, memoranda, transcriptions, etc. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1970-1985.

This database provides full page and article images with searchable full text from the Los Angeles sentinel (1934-2005). The collection includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue in PDF format.

The Louisville Courier Journal is Kentucky's newspaper of record. The paper has become a progressive voice in southern politics, championing causes such as public education, equal rights for blacks and advocating for the poor of Appalachia. The Courier Journal became the first U.S. daily newspaper to appoint a woman managing editor, Carol Sutton in 1974.

Michigan Chronicle offers primary source material essential to the study of American history and African American culture, history, politics, and the arts. Examine major movements from the Great Migration and Civil Rights to the election of Americas first Black president.

African American newspaper, published weekly in New York City. News articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons, etc. Full page and article images with searchable full text. Coverage: 1922-1993.

Published in Norfolk, Virginia, this is one of the most important African American newspapers of its time. News articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, cartoons, etc. Full page and article images with searchable full text. Coverage: 1916-2003.

Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on African and African American Studies. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable.

The collection consists of rare works of poetry, organizational records, print publications, over one hundred articles, poems, plays, and speeches by Baraka, a small amount of personal correspondence, and oral histories.

An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1913-1998.

The oldest continuously published black newspaper, is dedicated to the needs and concerns of the fourth largest black community in the U.S. During the 1930s the paper supported the growth of the United Way, rallied against the riots in Chester, PA, and continuously fought against segregation.

This database provides full page and article images with searchable full text from the Courier (1950-1954 : City ed.), New Pittsburgh Courier (1969-1981 : City ed.), New Pittsburgh Courier (1981-2002), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-1950 : City ed.), and Pittsburgh Courier (1955-1965 : City ed.).

This database covers a vast range of topics including the formative economic factors and other forces that led to the abolitionist movement, the 600,000 battle casualties and the emancipation of nearly 4 million slaves. Includes newspapers, advertisements, editorials, letters, obituaries, ephemera

Authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States. Includes monthly updates to tables, deep searching at the line-item level, powerful facets for narrowing search results, image and spreadsheet versions of all current and historical tables, along with links to provider sites. Coverage: 1895-present.

This collection is a unique resource for the study of the era of the American civil rights movement. Included here are transcriptions of close to 700 interviews with those who made history in the struggles for voting rights, against discrimination in housing, for the desegregation of the schools, to expose racism in hiring, in defiance of police brutality, and to address poverty in the African American communities. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1967-1973.

Activities of the Republic of New Afrika leaders, power struggles within the organization, its growing militancy, and its affiliations with other black militant organizations. Documentation collected by the FBI, including newspaper and periodical articles, books, pamphlets, broadsides, leaflets, etc. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1968-1980.

Slave Trade in the Atlantic World charts the inception of slavery in Africa and its rise as perpetuated on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, placing particular emphasis on the Caribbean, Latin America, and United States. This collection was developed by an international editorial board with scholars specializing in North American, European, African, and Latin American/Caribbean aspects of the slave trade. Includes customs records, court cases, shipping records, manuscripts, personal papers, letters, trade records, and other materials.

Includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions. Part 1. Debates over slavery and abolition; Part 2. Slave trade in the Atlantic world; Part 3. The institution of slavery; Part 4. The age of emancipation. Includes legal documents, plantation records, first-person accounts, newspapers, government records, and other primary sources Covers: 1492 to 1888.

Brings together, for the first time, all known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. The library has hundreds of pamphlets and books written about slavery--defending it, attacking it or simply analyzing it. Covers 1450s to 1880s.

Slavery in Antebellum Southern Industries presents some of the richest, most valuable, and most complete collections in the entire documentary record of American slavery, focusing on the industrial uses of slave labor. The materials selected include company records; business and personal correspondence; documents pertaining to the purchase, hire, medical care, and provisioning of slave laborers; descriptions of production processes; and journals recounting costs and income.

This digital collection documents key aspects of the history of slavery worldwide over six centuries, with 16 key areas of focus: slavery in the early Americas; African coast; the Middle Passage; slavery and agriculture; urban and domestic slavery; slave testimony; spiritualism and religion in slave communities; resistance and revolts; the Underground Railroad; the abolition movement and the slavery debate; legislation and politics; freed slaves, freedmen and free black settlements; education; slavery and the Islamic world; varieties of slave experience; slavery today and the legacy of slavery. Documents include legal materials and court cases, broadsides, court records, maps, pamphlets, lists of enslaved peoples, ship's logs, registers, and reports. The collection also includes case studies from America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and Cuba.

Primary source documents of records and correspondence of southern plantations during the Antebellum period of U.S. History. These documents reflect the business and operation of plantations, including slavery records. Part of ProQuest's History Vault.

This database consists of nine modules: Slavery and the Law; Slavery in Antebellum Southern Industries; records focused on the Slave trade and other legal issues pertaining to slavery; four modules of Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantation Records; a module on the Civil War entitled "Confederate Military Manuscripts and Records of Union Generals and the Union Army"; and Reconstruction and Military Government after the Civil War.

African American history, radical studies, civil rights, and political science. Documents from the FBI chronicle the interracial group that left Washington on May 4, 1961, bound for New Orleans. An Archives Unbound database. Coverage: 1961.