LibGuides: Primary Sources: Black History

African American Studies

African American studies
African American Newspapers

African America, Communists, and the National Negro Congress, 1933-1947 This link opens in a new window The working files of John P. Davis, a founding member and executive secretary of the National Negro Congress (NNC), a national coalition which aimed to coordinate protest action and pursue racial justice for African Americans. Also included are the files of successive executive secretaries of the NNC, and financial records.
African American Communities This link opens in a new window From communal struggle to creative outpourings: uncover the everyday lives of African Americans spanning two turbulent centuries (Early 19th to early 21st century).
African American Police League Records (1961-1988) This link opens in a new window Founded in 1968 by five black Chicago policemen, the AAPL aimed to establish a greater degree of professionalism in law enforcement, to elevate the image of the African American police person in the African American community, and to eliminate police brutality in law enforcement. This collection contains a wide variety of documents from the League, including correspondence, newsletters, reports and publications, as well as legal documents.
Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window Covers the work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War. Covering the period 1830-1865, the collection includes the writings of the activists themselves, including pamphlets, newspaper articles and books.
Black Drama, 3rd ed This link opens in a new window Contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare, hard to find, or out of print. More than 40% of the collection consists of previously unpublished plays.
Black Economic Empowerment: The National Negro Business League This link opens in a new window Files from the National Negro Business League (1901-1928), founded by Booker T Washington, who believed there was a need for African Americans to build an economic network and allow that to be a catalyst for change and social improvement.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records This link opens in a new window Contains official U.S. government records and FBI files focusing on the civil rights struggle from the 1950's to the 1970's, with a small amount from the 1980's. FBI files include coverage of Martin Luther King as well as events in Montgomery, Albany, St. Augustine, Selma, and Memphis. Government records include content from the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records, Supplement This link opens in a new window A supplement to the main U.S. Federal Government Records collection, this includes civil rights records from the Ford and Reagan presidencies. Topics covered include affirmative action; Bob Jones University; busing and school desegregation; civil rights; fair housing; Martin Luther King Jr. Day; and the Civil Rights Restoration Act, Grove City College, and the Voting Rights Act of 1982.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1 This link opens in a new window Contains records of major U.S. civil rights organisations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle. Organisations covered are Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. Individual papers from A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Mary McLeod Bethune.
Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 2 This link opens in a new window Contains records from major U.S. civil rights organisations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle. Includes the records of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Africa-related papers of Claude Barnett, papers of Robert F. Williams, Arthur W. Mitchell, the Chicago chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, and records pertaining to the Mississippi Freedom Summer.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States This link opens in a new window A selection of open-access primary source documents that may be used by a wide range of students, from middle and high school students to college students and independent scholars.
Black Liberation Army and the Program of Armed Struggle, 1970-1980 This link opens in a new window FBI files relating to the Black Liberation Army, an underground, black nationalist-Marxist militant organization whose stated goal was to "take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States". The collection covers the years 1970-1983.
Black Nationalism and the Revolutionary Action Movement This link opens in a new window Collection of records reproducing the writings and statements of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), a US-based revolutionary black nationalist group, as well as organisations that evolved from or were influenced by RAM. The collection spans the years 1962-1999.
Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window Consists of scholarly journals, commissioned essays and historic indexes on US focused black studies and culture as well as black literature, and The Chicago Defender newspaper from 1910-1975. A major component is Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, consisting of essays that provide an introduction to major topics in Black Studies. The other black newspapers we subscribe to and the Black Abolitionist Papers are cross-searchable in this resource.
Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window Contains an extensive collection of non-fiction writings by major American black leaders, teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other figures. A wide variety of content is included including essays, articles and book chapters, as well as oral histories. Coverage is predominantly the C20 with most content from the 1970's, but there is also some C19 material.
Black Women Writers This link opens in a new window Black Women Writers presents 100,000 pages of literature and essays on feminist issues, written by authors from Africa and the African diaspora. Coverage begins in the 18th century with narratives depicting slavery, moves through and beyond the Harlem Renaissance, and includes writers from the movements of the 1960s, covering womanism, black feminism, and related topics.
Civil Rights and Social Activism in Alabama: The Papers of John LeFlore, 1926-1976 AND Records of the Non-Partisan Voters League, 1956-1987 This link opens in a new window Materials documenting the work of John L. LeFlore, the most significant figure in the struggle for black equality in Mobile, Alabama, throughout southern Alabama and Mississippi, and along the Florida Gulf Coast. Also in this collection are records from the Non-Partisan Voters League, founded in Alabama.
Fannie Lou Hamer: Papers of a Civil Rights Activitist, Political Activitist, and Woman This link opens in a new window Correspondence, financial records, programs, photographs, newspaper articles, invitations, and other printed items (1966-78) relating to Fannie Lou Hamer, a voting rights activist and civil rights leader in the U.S.
FBI File: Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. This link opens in a new window The 44,000-page case file of the FBI documents the bureau's role in finding James Earl Ray, who assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, and obtaining his conviction. The file also includes background information amassed by the FBI on Dr. Kings social activism. This archive is of particular interest to students of the civil rights movement and of the continuing controversy surrounding Martin Luther King's murder.
FBI Surveillance of James Forman and SNCC This link opens in a new window FBI reports on James Forman, a prominent African-American leader in the civil rights movement. The files cover the 1961-1976 period, when he was perceived as a threat to the internal security of the United States. The collected materials also include information on the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), in which Forman was active.
Federal Surveillance of African Americans, 1920-1984 This link opens in a new window A collection of FBI files relating to investigations into prominent African American individuals and groups throughout the twentieth century. The FBI recruited black "confidential special informants" to infiltrate a variety of organisations, and hundreds of documents in this collection were originated by such operatives.
Fight for Racial Justice and the Civil Rights Congress This link opens in a new window Papers relating to the Civil Rights Congress (CRC), a civil rights organization formed in 1946, and cited as subversive and communist by the U.S. Attorney General. Included in this collection are files documenting the many civil rights and civil liberties issues and litigation in which the CRC was involved during the period 1946-1955.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, New Deal and Race Relations, 1933-1945 This link opens in a new window Materials from Franklin D. Roosevelt's official file concerning the issues of lynching, segregation, race riots and employment discrimination against African Americans. This collection offers an insight into Roosevelt's political style as well as material useful for the study of the early development of the Civil Rights Movement.
Frontier Life This link opens in a new window This collection helps us to understand existence on the edges of the anglophone world from 1650-1920. Discover the various European and colonial frontier regions of North America, Africa and Australasia through documents that reveal the lives of settlers and indigenous peoples in these areas. Includes correspondence, diaries, government papers, business records, land transactions, legal documents, speeches, books and pamphlets.
Grassroots Civil Rights & Social Activism: FBI Files on Benjamin J. Davis, Jr This link opens in a new window Comprised of FBI files on Benjamin J. Davis, Jr., a prominent African American member of the U.S. Communist Party. Records include details of grassroots organising successes and failures, minutes from meetings held on all the levels on which Davis engaged, and reports from member-informers on all the major political and theoretical debates. Records are taken from the personal collection of Dr Gerald Horne.
Grassroots Civil Rights and Social Action: Council for Social Action This link opens in a new window Archive of the Council for Social Action, a U.S Christian Church organisation. Records spanning from 1934 to 1956 cover the Council's involvement in social action, race relations, Indian relations, opposition to the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany, and the protection of the civil rights of war victims and Japanese-Americans during the Second World War.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals. These materials were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
Integration of Alabama Schools and the U.S. Military, 1963 This link opens in a new window Records of the Army’s plans, codenamed "Operation Oak Tree", in the event of civil disturbances related to school desegregation in Alabama in 1963.
Introduction to U.S. History: Slavery in America This link opens in a new window This collection documents key aspects of the history of slavery in America from its origins in Africa to its abolition, including materials on the slave trade, plantation life, emancipation, pro-slavery and anti-slavery arguments, the religious views on slavery, etc.
James Meredith, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Integration of the University of Mississippi This link opens in a new window FBI documentation on Meredith’s attempt to legally become the first African American student at The University of Mississippi in 1962 and the white political and social backlash that followed. The collection includes correspondence from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and others .
Liberation Movement in Africa and African America This link opens in a new window FBI surveillance files (1970 to 1985) on the activities of the African Liberation Support Committee and All African People’s Revolutionary Party .; this collection provides two unique views on African American support for liberation struggles in Africa, the issue of Pan-Africanism, and the role of African independence movements as political leverage for African Americans.
Making of Modern Law: American Civil Liberties Union Papers (Primary Sources): Part I: 1912-1990 This link opens in a new window Search the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) records on free speech, citizenship, race, discrimination, and other topics.
Migration to New Worlds This link opens in a new window Full text access to a wide range of primary source material focused on migration to the New Worlds.
NAACP Papers: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files This link opens in a new window Papers of the U.S. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, covering 1909-1970. This collection covers the work for civil rights and includes minutes of directors' meetings, monthly reports from officers to the board of directors, proceedings of the annual business meetings, significant records of the association's annual conferences, plus many special reports on a wide range of issues.
NAACP Papers: Branch Department, Branch Files and Youth Department Files This link opens in a new window Papers of the U.S. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, covering 1913-1972. Covers the work for civil rights in the branches by local activists as well as and youth department of the organisation. Files are divided by region and topic.
NAACP Papers: Special Subjects This link opens in a new window Papers of the U.S. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, covering 1912-1972. Covers the work for civil rights that fell outside of the major campaigns, including the Klan, Birth of a Nation, communism and anticommunism, prosecution of Hollywood personalities and conscientious objectors during World War II, relations with African colonial liberation movements and more.
NAACP Papers: the NAACP's Major Campaigns - Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces This link opens in a new window Papers of the U.S. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, covering 1913-1965. Covers the work for civil rights via major campaigns of the NAACP including on equal access to education, voting, employment, housing and the military.
NAACP Papers: the NAACP's Major Campaigns - Legal Department Files This link opens in a new window Papers of the U.S. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, covering 1956-1972. Covers the work for civil rights done by the NAACP's general counsel and his Legal Department staff. Covers the NAACP's campaign to bring about desegregation throughout the United States, particularly in the South. Includes over 600 cases from 34 states and the District of Columbia.
NAACP Papers: the NAACP's Major Campaigns - Scottsboro, Anti-Lynching, Criminal Justice, Peonage, Labor, and Segregation and Discrimination Complaints and Responses This link opens in a new window Papers of the U.S. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, covering 1912-1965. Covers the work for civil rights, specifically the NAACP's efforts to combat lynching, mob violence, discrimination in the criminal justice system, and white resistance to civil rights efforts. Includes coverage of the Scottsboro boys trial as well as the NAACP's campaign to introduce a federal law against lynching.
North American Women's Letters and Diaries This link opens in a new window This collection includes the immediate experiences of 1,325 women and 150,000 pages of diaries and letters. Coverage is broadly C18 to C20 with collections focusing on travel, pioneering and daily life for girls as well as covering women's views on family, marriage, travel, religion, disease, and death.
Papers of Amiri Baraka, Poet Laureate of the Black Power Movement This link opens in a new window Amiri Baraka was both a poet and a political activist in the U.S. noted for his leadership of the Harlem-based Black Arts Movement. Papers include poetry, records from the variety of organisations he was involved in, print publications, articles, plays, speeches, personal correspondence, oral histories, as well as some personal records. Coverage is 1913-1998.
Public Housing, Racial Policies, and Civil Rights: the Intergroup Relations Branch of the Federal Public Housing Administration, 1936-1963 This link opens in a new window Contains directives and memoranda related to the US Public Housing Administration's policies and procedures. Includes civil rights correspondence, statements and policy about race, labour-based state activity records, local housing authorities' policies on hiring minorities, court cases involving housing decisions, racially-restrictive covenants, and news clippings.
Quest for Labor Equality in Household Work: National Domestic Workers Union, 1965-1979 This link opens in a new window Records of the United Domestic Workers Union (U.S) from 1965-1979, including minutes of committees, financial documents and legal documents. Topics include involvement in the Black community, the Manpower Program, the Career Learning Center, the Homemaking Skills Training Program, Maids Honor Day, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), and various federal agencies.
Race Relations in America This link opens in a new window Documenting three pivotal decades in the fight for civil rights (1940s to 1970's), this resource showcases the speeches, reports, surveys and analyses produced by the Departments staff and Institute participants, including Charles S. Johnson, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., and Thurgood Marshall.
Ralph J. Bunche Oral Histories Collection on the Civil Rights Movement This link opens in a new window The Ralph J. Bunche Oral History Collection from the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center includes around 700 interview transcriptions with those who were active in the US civil rights movement (1950's-1973).
Rastafari Ephemeral Publications from the Written Rastafari Archives Project This link opens in a new window This collection contains magazines, newsletters and ephemeral publications from the Written Rastafari Archives Project (WRAP). The period covered is the early 1970s to 2014 and covers a transitional period, where the movement has spread across the Afro-Atlantic world and has become more globalized.
Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Enforcement of Federal Law in the South, 1871-1884 This link opens in a new window This US collection covers the efforts of district attorneys from southern states to uphold federal laws in the states that fought in the Confederacy or were Border States. Includes their correspondence with the attorney general as well as the correspondence of marshals, judges, convicts, and concerned or aggrieved citizens.
Republic of New Afrika This link opens in a new window An African-American social movement in the USA, believed by the FBI to be seditious. This collection contains FBI documentation from 1968-1980, collected through intelligence activities, informants, surveillance, and cooperation with local police departments.
Slavery, Abolition & Social Justice This link opens in a new window Bringing together documents from archives and libraries across the Atlantic world, spanning from 1490 to 2007, this resource allows to explore and compare unique material relating to the complex subjects of slavery, abolition and social justice. Includes original manuscripts, pamphlets, books, paintings and maps.
Southern Negro Youth Congress and the Communist Party This link opens in a new window Papers of James E. Jackson and Esther Cooper Jackson, African American communists and civil rights activists, best known for their role in founding and leading the Southern Negro Youth Congress (1937-48). Papers cover 1932-2000 and include correspondence, lectures, research notebooks, speeches, and other publications.
U.S. Military Activities and Civil Rights: Integration of the University of Mississippi and the Use of Military Force, 1961-1963 This link opens in a new window Collected records from the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations relating to the use of Federal marshals, U.S. Troops, and the federalised National Guard in Oxford, Mississippi, 1962-1963, on the occasion of James Meredith's enrolment at the University of Mississippi, as their first African-American student. Includes coverage of the riots as well as daily events in this period.
U.S. Military Activities and Civil Rights: The Little Rock Integration Crisis, 1957-1958 This link opens in a new window Manuscripts covering President Eisenhower's use of Federal troops and the Arkansas National Guard in the Little Rock integration crisis of 1957-1958. Records include a journal of events, a summary of the operation, a historical report, press reports and observations by Army officers surrounding events at the school and in the community.
U.S. Military Activities and Civil Rights: The Military Response to the March on Washington, 1963 This link opens in a new window Gives details of the Federal Government's plans to militarily intervene in the 1963 March on Washington (codenamed Operation "Steep Hill") in the event the march became disorderly. Includes Army staff communications, contingency plans, intelligence reports, press articles, and maps planning the route. Also some documents on Alabama school integration.
War on Poverty: Office of Civil Rights, 1965-1968 This link opens in a new window Contains correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes of meetings, convention programmes, and other records concerning the activities of Maurice Dawkins, Assistant Director for Civil Rights in the Office of Economic Opportunity. Files contain information regarding civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr; Roy Wilkins; Whitney Young; and Andrew Young.
War on Poverty and the Office of Economic Opportunity: Administration of Antipoverty Programs and Civil Rights, 1964-1967 This link opens in a new window Contains a series of Office of Economic Opportunity collections that highlight efforts to meld the issue of civil rights and antipoverty initiatives. Includes correspondence, reports, guidelines, antipoverty program analyses, minutes of meetings, transcripts of testimonies, and other material.
We Were Prepared for the Possibility of Death: Freedom Riders in the South, 1961 This link opens in a new window The Freedom Riders operated during the struggle for civil rights in the U.S.. They set out to challenge the Jim Crow travel laws by riding public transport in the Southern States of the U.S. in 1961. This collection from the FBI Library covers the rides and the violent reactions they provoked.

African American Newspapers 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window 270 searchable newspapers drawn from over 35 U.S. states. A unique record of African American history, culture and daily life. Digitised scans of individual articles and full newspaper pages. Date coverage: 1828-1998
Atlanta Daily World This link opens in a new window Fully searchable archive of the Atlanta Daily World, a daily newspaper published in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S.) and one of the oldest African-American newspapers. Digitised scans of individual articles and full newspaper pages. Date coverage: 1932-2010
Baltimore Afro-American‎ This link opens in a new window Fully searchable archive of the Baltimore Afro-American, ‎an African American weekly newspaper published in Baltimore, Maryland (U.S). Digitised scans of individual articles and full newspaper pages. Date coverage: 1893-1988
Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window Consists of scholarly journals, commissioned essays and historic indexes on US focused black studies and culture as well as black literature, and The Chicago Defender newspaper from 1910-1975. A major component is Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, consisting of essays that provide an introduction to major topics in Black Studies. The other black newspapers we subscribe to and the Black Abolitionist Papers are cross-searchable in this resource.
Chicago Defender‎ This link opens in a new window Fully searchable archive of Chicago Defender‎‎, a daily African-American newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois (U.S.) known for its civil- and equal-rights advocacy. Digitised scans of individual articles and full newspaper pages. Date coverage: 1909-1975
Cleveland Call and Post‎ This link opens in a new window Fully searchable archive of the Cleveland Call and Post‎, a weekly leading African-American newspaper published in Cleveland, Ohio (U.S.) Older material is available a digitised article and full page scans, newer material is available as OCR text. Date coverage: 1934-1991.
Los Angeles Sentinel This link opens in a new window Fully searchable archive of the Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly newspaper published in Los Angeles, California (U.S.). The newspaper provides first-hand accounts, reporting and unparalleled coverage of the politics and society from one of America's most prominent African American newspapers. Digitised scans of individual articles and full newspaper pages. Date coverage: 1934-2005
Michigan Chronicle This link opens in a new window Fully searchable archive of the Michigan Chronicle, an African-American weekly newspaper published in Michigan, Detroit (U.S.). Digitised scans of individual articles and full newspaper pages. Date coverage: 1939-2010
New York Amsterdam News This link opens in a new window Fully searchable archive of the New York Amsterdam News, a weekly African American newspaper published in New York (U.S.). Digitised scans of individual articles and full newspaper pages. Date coverage: 1922-1993
New Journal and Guide‎ This link opens in a new window Fully searchable archive of the New Journal and Guide, a weekly newspaper published in Norfolk, Virginia (U.S) focusing on local and national African-American news, sports, and issues. Digitised scans of individual articles and full newspaper pages. Date coverage: 1916 - 2010
Philadelphia Tribune This link opens in a new window Fully searchable archive of the Philadelphia Tribune, an African American daily newspaper published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (U.S.). Digitised scans of individual articles and full newspaper pages. Date coverage: 1912-2001
Pittsburgh Courier‎ This link opens in a new window Fully searchable archive of the Pittsburgh Courier, a weekly Africa American newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (U.S.) and one of the leading Black newspapers in America in the 1930s. Digitised scans of individual articles and full newspaper pages. Date coverage: 1911-2002