Resource Guides: African American Resources: Databases & Websites

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Recommended Library Databases

World History: The Modern Era

Covers history from the Renaissance to today
World History (Gale in Context)

Offers comprehensive reference content on the significant people, events and topics in World history. Topics are arranged by source type, time periods, event types, civilizations and religions. Contextual material is accompanied by biographies of leading figures, source types and related topics.
U.S. History (Gale in Context)
Offers comprehensive reference content on the significant people, events and topics in U.S. History. Topics are arranged by source type, time periods, event types, ethnic groups and perspectives.
American History
Offers a broad range of topics related to all aspects of American History. Includes reference and primary source material, in addition to related statistical and multimedia sources.
Defining Documents in American History
Primary Source collections organized by topic:
The 1930'sThe Gun DebateThe Salem Witch TrialsThe Underground RailroadVoter's Rights Watergate Worker's Rights

Boston Public Library Databases

Requires a membership at the Boston Public Library

Link on the left-side column

Gale OneFile: Diversity Studies (BPL)
Access a range of periodical content to explore cultural differences, contributions, and influences in the global community.
Slavery and Anti-Slavery (BPL)
Primary sources on the transatlantic slave trade and the global abolitionist movement, including contemporary books and periodicals, British, Spanish, and American colonial and legal records, manuscripts, correspondence, the papers of abolitionist organizations, and other materials from the collections of research institutions around the world.

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Includes essays, chronologies, reference and biographical articles, and bibliographies to support and contextualize the primary source material.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States (BPL)
This resource features select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history. It is designed to support a wide range of students, as well independent researchers and anyone interested in learning more about the foundation of ongoing racial injustice in the U.S.—and the fights against it.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law (BPL)
Primary and secondary legal and historical materials on the institution of slavery, primarily in the United States and the English-speaking world.

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Includes every relevant colony, state, and federal statute and all reported state and federal cases on slavery, as well as historical and current periodical articles and commentaries, book reviews, and an extensive bibliography of additional print and electronic sources.

Primary Source Websites

African American History-Primary Source Sets (LOC)
Letters, photographs, newspaper articles and other primary source materials.Includes the great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance and Jim Crow.
Black Soldiers in the U.S. Military During the Civil War (National Archives)
Includes primary sources
Freedom's Journal
First newspaper owned and produced by African Americans (1827-1829). Includes all 103 issues
The Great Migration (African American) (U of Washington)
Includes interactive tables, maps and data.
In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience
Primary sources, including texts, images and maps of 400 years of migrations.
Jim Crow Museum (Ferris State U.)
Wide range of digital resources, incl. primary sources, background & biographies.
Negro, Black and African-American Census Reports (U. of Missouri)
Census reports data,in addition to population and housing censuses,. Also provides data on pauperism; the deaf, blind and insane; education; employment and other topics.
Plessy v. Ferguson (Jim Crow Laws): Topics in Chronicling America (LOC)
Contemporary newspaper articles covering the trial and outcome.
Race and Place: An African American Community in the Jim Crow South
Digital archive of racial segregation laws, or the 'Jim Crow' laws from the late 1880s until the mid-twentieth century in Charlottesville, Virginia.
100 Years: Remembering the Tulsa Race Massacre (National Archives)
Overview, images, documents and links to additional primary sources.
Tulsa Race Massacre documents
Documents, including government sources and newspapers chronicling the event.