Below is a list of databases focused on primary sources related to the historical experience of African Americans and the African Diaspora in the United States.
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The African American Historical Serials Collection, developed in conjunction with American Theological Library Association (ATLA) features more than 170 unique periodical titles related to the history of African American life and culture, with extensive coverage of religious organizations, churches, and institutions. Material was published between 1829 and 1922.
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Updated regularly. A comprehensive collection of scholarship focused on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture, coupled with sophisticated technology permitting precise search and browse capabilities. Features over 7,500 articles from Oxford's authoritative reference works, approximately 100 primary sources with specially written commentaries, over 1,000 images, over 100 maps, over 200 charts and tables, timelines to guide researchers through the history of African Americans and over 6,000 biographies.
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Updated regularly. Includes more than 1,000 U.S. historical newspapers published between 1690 and the 1990s, including titles from all 50 states. Search by dates/eras, article types (news & opinion, election returns, letters, poetry/songs, legislative, prices, advertisements, matrimony & death notices), region/state, and newspaper name.
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Updated regularly. Contains approximately 1200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays. The content represents 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.
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This Black Freedom module is highlighted by the records of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Africa-related papers of Claude Barnett, and the Robert F. Williams Papers. Rounding out this module are the papers of Chicago Congressman Arthur W. Mitchell, the Chicago chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality, and records pertaining to the Mississippi Freedom Summer.
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The focus of the Federal Government Records module is on the political side of the freedom movement, the role of civil rights organizations in pushing for civil rights legislation, and the interaction between African Americans and the federal government in the 20th century. Major collections in this module include the FBI Files on Martin Luther King Jr.; Centers of the Southern Struggle, FBI Files covering five of the most pivotal arenas of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s: Montgomery, Albany, St. Augustine, Selma, and Memphis; and records from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations.
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This module supplements the original module of Federal Government records by adding civil rights records from the Ford and Reagan presidencies. Additionally, seven FOIA collections cover 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.
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This collection is a black studies portfolio that brings together seminal documentaries, powerful interviews, and previously unavailable archival footage surveying the black experience. The collection contains 500 hours of film covering African American history, politics, art and culture, family structure, gender relationships, and social and economic issues.
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Digitized historical documents from the records of voting rights activist and civil rights leader, Fannie Lou Hamer. Her papers contain more than three thousand pieces of correspondence plus financial records, programs, photographs, newspaper articles, invitations, and other printed items.
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The collection consists of records of the United Domestic Workers Union (U.S) from 1965-1979. The National Domestic Workers Union was founded in Atlanta in 1968 by Dorothy Bolden to help women engaged in household work. Correspondence (1965-1979) reflects Bolden's efforts in organizing the Union and includes such correspondence with Georgia and national political figures. In addition, the collection contains minutes of the Union, financial documents and files relating to Equal Opportunity Atlanta.
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The Written Rastafari Archives Project (WRAP) involves an exclusive collection of the most well-known Rastafari ephemerals – newsletters, magazines, newspapers, booklets, statements, letters, articles and assorted literature - written and published by a number of Rastafari Mansions, organizations, groups, and individuals over the past four decades. The provocative literary materials in this WRAP Collection provide an historical time stamp and current affairs commentary on the transitional period in the Rastafari Movement’s development – a period extending from the early 1970s through to the present. It is a forty year period during which the Rastafari Movement has been spreading across the Afro-Atlantic world in one form or another and becoming progressively globalized.
Visualization by W.E.B Du Bois, 1900. (Public Domain, Library of Congress)
African American Artists in Collections- explore a selection of works by African American artists included in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
Black Inventor, online museum focusing on top Black inventors over the last 300 years
Black Joy Archive - "The archive is intended to serve black people as a therapeutic practice in self-preservation and self-esteem, as we are continually asked to face painful imagery of folks who look like us...an open-call was made for individuals to submit images of their joy - be it childhood or family photos, candids or personal artwork they have created."
BlackPast.org - an online reference center makes available a wealth of materials on African American history in one central location on the Internet. These materials include an online encyclopedia of over 4,000 entries, the complete transcript of more than 300 speeches by African Americans, other people of African ancestry, and those concerned about race, given between 1789 and 2016, over 140 full text primary documents, bibliographies, timelines
Civil Rights Digital Library - includes a digital video archive of historical news film and other primary sources. Can browse by media type.
Commerorator Newspaper Collection, 1991-2012 - newspaper printed in South Berkeley from 1990-2013 by the Commemoration Committee for the Black Panther Party.
Guide to the Ida B. Wells Papers, 1884-1976 - partially digitized collection including original manuscripts, correspondence, newspapers and journal articles written and compiled by Ida B. Wells
HBCU Library Alliance Digital Collections - collection of primary sources from HBCU libraries and archives. Includes photographs, university correspondence, manuscripts, images of campus buildings, memorabilia, event programs, and more.
Library of Congress: African American History Online Resources - A large number of primary source collection materials related to African American history are digitized and available online via the Library of Congress's website, including manuscripts, newspaper articles, images, and rare books
RADAR: Repository of AUC Digital collections, Archives, and Research - Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library's institutional repository, including including research and scholarly output, archival collections, and theses and dissertations. Materials included in RADAR have been selected and deposited by the students and faculty of the member schools, Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College, and Spelman College, and the librarians of the Robert W. Woodruff Library.
Rosa Parks Papers, 1866-2006 - includes approximately 7,500 items in the Manuscript Division, as well as 2,500 photographs in the Prints and Photographs Division, documents many aspects of Parks's private life and public activism
Schomburg Digital Collections @NYPL - scroll down to see collections related to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; collections include photographs, prints, rare books, archival material, and more.
South Side Home Movie Project Archive - Collects, preserves, digitizes, researches and screens home movies made by residents of Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods. The archive includes small-gauge films (8mm, Super8mm, 16mm) covering a period from the 1920s to the 1980s.
Umbra Search African American History - this tool searches more than 500,000 digitized African American primary sources (letters, manuscripts, photographs, oral histories, etc.) from over 1000 participating archives, libraries, and museums in the U.S. From the Univ. of Minnesota.
These notable archives contain archival material that often requires in person access. Visit the specific archive's website to explore options related to digital access or scanning requests.
African American History @ Stuart A. Rose Archives - robust primary resource materials covering six principle collecting areas--Civil Rights and Post-Civil Rights Movements, Black print Culture, Blacks and the Left, African American Literature and the Arts, Expatriate Literary and Cultural Figures, and African Americans and Sports. Located at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
African American Museum & Library at Oakland - holds primary and secondary materials which preserve the history of African Americans in Northern California and the Bay Area. Contains over 160 collections documenting prominent families, pioneers, churches, social and political organizations. Located in Oakland, CA.
Amistad Research Center - collects, preserves, and provides access to original materials that reference the social and cultural importance of America's ethnic and racial history, the African Diaspora, human relations, and civil rights. Located at Tulane University.
Atlanta University Center Archives - includes the archives of Clark Atlanta University, Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College and Spelman College. Also has many individual, familial, and organizational collections representing the breadth of African American experiences.
Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture - holds nearly 4000 primary and secondary source materials which preserve the history and culture of African Americans in Charleston, the South Carolina Low Country, and South Carolina at large. Located at the College of Charleston.
Black Archives of Mid-America - collects and preserves historical materials and artifacts related to the African American experience in the Midwest with an emphasis on Kansas City, MO region. Located in the historic 18th and Vine District in Kansas City, MO.
The Black Film Center/ Archive - collects and preserves films and related materials which have substantial participation by African American writers, actors, producers, directors, musicians, and consultants as well as those which depict some aspect of the black experience. Located at Indiana University-Bloomington.
Fisk University Special Collections and Archives - over 130 primary resource collections of African American scholars, poets, writers, artists, and businessmen including the complete Charles W. Chesnutt Papers. Located in Nashville, TN.
Henry Hampton Collection @ the Film and Media Archive - most notably known for his Eyes on the Prize documentary series chronicling the Civil Rights Movement. Henry Hampton's filmic legacy--over 58,000 items-- as well as organizational records for the historic Blackside Inc, production company are preserved here. Located at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center - one of the oldest African American archives in the country. Includes the Howard University Archive. Located in Washington, D.C.
National Archive for Black Women's History - only archive solely dedicated to the history of African American women. Core collection includes historic corporate records of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), along with personal papers, and corporate records of organizations mostly associated with the NCNW. Located in Landover, MD.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture - one of the world's leading research facilities devoted to the preservation of materials on the global African and African diasporan experiences. Contains over 11 million items in its non circulating collections. Located in New York City, NY.
Tuskegee University Archives Repository - Notable HBCU founded by Booker T. Washington. Collection includes books (including faculty publications), manuscripts, Tuskegee University periodicals and newspapers, ephemera, photographic images, disc and tape recordings, and other archival items. Located in Tuskegee, AL.
Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection @ Chicago Public Library - Largest African American history and literature collection in the Midwest with a strong focus on the black experience in Chicago. Contains photographs, manuscripts, rare books, and organizational records. Located in Chicago, IL.
A select few of historical African-American newspapers in our collection.
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Full page and article images of Atlanta Daily World (1931-2010) and Atlanta World (1931-1932), with searchable full text. Users can study the progression of issues over time by browsing issues of this historic Southern Black community newspaper, including news articles, photos, advertisements, classified ads, obituaries, editorials, cartoons, and more.
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Searchable database of the "Afro-American", one of the most widely circulated African-American newspapers on the Atlantic Coast. Includes full-text and full-image newspaper articles published from 1893 to 2010. Digital reproductions of every page and every article from every issue are available in downloadable PDF files.
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Full page and article images of various editions of the New York Amsterdam News newspaper, with combined coverage from 1922 to 2010. The newspaper offers primary source material relevant to the study of American history and African-American culture, history, politics, and the arts. Coverage includes news stories, editorials, letters to the editor, obituaries, birth and marriage announcements, photos, and advertisements. Later issues of the New York Amsterdam News are in the Ethnic NewsWatch database.
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The NAACP branch files in this module chronicle the local heroes of the civil rights revolution via NAACP branches throughout the United States, from 1913-1972. The contributions of scores of local leaders—attorneys, community organizers, financial benefactors, students, mothers, school teachers, and other participants—are revealed in these records. The Branch Department, Branch Files, and Youth Department Files in this module of NAACP Papers will allow researchers at all levels new opportunities to explore the contributions of NAACP local leaders. The branch files also indicate how effectively the NAACP national office used the branch network to advance the NAACP national program. The Youth Department Files document how the NAACP tapped the energy and talent of college students and other young people at the state and local levels.
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The NAACP was involved in several subjects that did not rise to the level of major campaigns but were still vital to the organization. This module contains records on those subjects, and in so doing, reveals the wide scope of NAACP activism and interest.These files cover subjects and episodes that are crucial to the NAACP's history, such as civil rights complaints and legislation, the Klan, Birth of a Nation, the Walter White-W. E. B. Du Bois controversy of 1933-1934, communism and anticommunism during the years of the "red scare," the congressional prosecution of Hollywood personalities, the prosecution of conscientious objectors during World War II, NAACP’s relations with African colonial liberation movements, NAACP fundraising and membership recruitment, urban riots, the War on Poverty, and the emergence of the Black Power Movement.
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Contains internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country. It charts the NAACP's work and delivers a first-hand view into crucial issues: lynching, school desegregation, and discrimination in the military, the criminal justice system, employment, and housing, among others. It provides a comprehensive view of the NAACP’s evolution, policies, and achievements from 1909–1970.
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Major campaigns for equal access to education, voting, employment, housing and the military are covered in this module. The education files in this module document the NAACP’s systematic assault on segregated education that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Files from 1955 –1965 focus on the NAACP’s efforts to implementthe Brown decision as well as to combat de facto segregation outside of the South.
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This module consists of Papers of the NAACP Legal Department from 1956-1972. For the period from 1956-1965, this includes the working case files of the NAACP’s general counsel, Robert Carter. Among the topics covered in these cases are school desegregation, abuses of police procedure, freedom of speech, desegregation of public facilities, voting rights, housing discrimination, and employment discrimination. A small sampling of the important cases in this module include NAACP v. Alabama (freedom of association), Gomillion v. Lightfoot (voting rights), Allen v. County School Board and Griffin v. County School Board (school desegregation in Virginia), Ogletree v. McNamara (employment discrimination), and Powell v. McCormack (seating of Congressman Adam Clayton Powell in the U.S. House of Representatives).
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This NAACP module focuses on the NAACP’s efforts regarding anti-lynching, peonage, and discrimination in employment and the criminal justice system. A rich set of records in this module is the NAACP file on one of the most celebrated criminal trials of the 20th century – the case of the Scottsboro boys. In this case, nine young black men were accused of raping two white women on a train in northern Alabama. Sixteen days after their arrest, eight of the nine teenagers were sentenced to death in the electric chair. All eight escaped execution when the Supreme Court, in the landmark case of Powell v. Alabama, ruled that the defendants had been inadequately represented by counsel.
The Black Diaspora Archive (BDA) is a collaborative project at UT Austin. Established in 2015 and housed at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, the BDA collects documentary, audiovisual, digital, and artistic works related to the Black Diaspora of the Americas and Caribbean. This encompasses historical publications, contemporary records, personal papers, and rare material produced by and/or about people of African descent—including scholars, professionals, community groups, activists, and artists.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Generic License.