African American Studies: Primary Sources

This Gale digital collection contains more than five million cross-searchable pages sourced from books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, government documents, court records, correspondence, manuscripts, and maps from many different countries, all themed on the global history of slavery. This archive includes materials 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. This collection covers a wide spectrum of interests related to the history of slavery, such as children and women under slavery, modes of resistance, global chronology, and much more. Additionally, the collection includes research tools such as guides, subject outlines, scholarly essays, classroom resources, and recommended primary source websites.

Searchable database which provides links to legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world

Comprehensive coverage of the African American experience from the early 18th century to the present day, Black Life in America is sourced from more than 19,000 American and global news sources, including over 400 current and historical Black publications. From Black-owned newspapers to mainstream publications, this primary source collection offers an expansive window into centuries of African American history, culture and daily lifeas well as the ways the dominant culture has portrayed and perceived people of African descent.
Series 1: 1704-1877: Arrival in America through Reconstruction
Series 2: 1878-1975: Jim Crow through the Civil Rights Movement
Series 3: 1976-Today: Black History Month to Today

The contributions, struggles, and identities of those who lived the African Diaspora come to life through personal accounts, video, and primary sources in this global black studies collection that focuses on the migrations, communities, and ideologies of people of African descent. The collection includes never-before digitized primary source documents, including books, government documents, personal papers, organizational papers, journals, newsletters, court documents, letters, and ephemera from the Caribbean, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, and France.

Available through June 30, 2025

Contains the non-fiction writings of over 1,000 major African American leaders, including teachers, artists, politicians, religious leaders, athletes, war veterans, entertainers, and other major figures from 1700 to the present. Includes full-text books, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews. The material can be browsed by author, source, year, personal event, historical event, and subject.

This primary source collection details the extensive work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War. Covering the period 1830-1865, the collection presents the international impact of African American activism against slavery, in the writings of the activists themselves. The approximately 15,000 articles, documents, correspondence, proceedings, manuscripts, and literary works of almost 300 Black abolitionists show the full range of their activities in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Germany.

African Americans and Jim Crow: Repression and Protest offers more than 1,000 fully searchable printed works critical for insight into African-American culture and life from the beginning of Jim Crow to World War I and beyond. Capturing voices of, by, for, and about African Americans, this one-of-a-kind digital resource consolidates many of the most noteworthy works by and about African Americans during a pivotal period of segregation and disenfranchisement, covering such critically important subjects as the evolution of African-American identity; eyewitness accounts of African-American life throughout the United States; relationships between African Americans and peoples of other nations; race in literature; and official reports on the changing status of African Americans. Time Period Covered: 1883-1922

From womens suffrage to discrimination of all kinds, Civil Rights in America: From Reconstruction to the Great Society is a fully searchable archive of official publications and primary source material related to civil rights in the United States. Coverage spanning from the myriad rights issues surrounding African Americans to the issues related to other ethnic groups, laborers, children and undocumented workers, as seen through the eyes of those who experienced them, it includes varied perspectives and firsthand accounts of freedom and segregation, origin and history of the Ku Klux Klan, challenges of the Freedmans Bureau, history of child labor regulations, founding and growth of Black colleges, establishment of the property rights of women, educational equality for minority children, integration and fair housing, labor unions, immigration studies tracking 20th-century racial minorities, maternity rights of women, national and regional attitudes towards race and gender, school integration and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the evolving debate about unauthorized border crossings and much more.

This primary source collection--via Adam Matthew--presents multiple aspects of the African American community through pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, official records and in-depth oral histories, revealing the prevalent challenges of racism, discrimination and integration, and a unique African American culture and identity. Also featured is a rich selection of visual material, including photographs, maps and ephemera.

Features records of NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, CORE, National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, Mary McLeod Bethune, African American Police League, National Baptist Convention and federal records on the Black Freedom Struggle


This category 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 includes NAACP Papers, federal government records, organizational records, and personal papers regarding the 20th Century Black Freedom Struggle. NAACP Papers consists of 6 modules. Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century consists of four modules.

Available through June 30, 2025

This news archive draws from the records of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), focusing on civil rights, race, gender, and issues relating to the U.S. Supreme Court. This collection of more than 2 million pages offers researchers a unique view of the inner workings of the organization and the hundreds of groups with which the ACLU interacted. Covering the years from before the ACLUs official founding in 1920 through the 20th century, this archive offers an array of primary source materials on some of the most important issues that affected the United States. Collection materials digitized from the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University.

The Organizational Records and Personal Papers bring a new perspective to the Black Freedom Struggle via the records of major civil rights organizations and personal papers of leaders and observers of the 20th century Black freedom struggle. The three major civil rights organizations are the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.

This history vault module documents how African American policemen in Chicago, beginning in 1968, attempted to fight against discrimination and police brutality by the Chicago Police Department and to improve relations between African Americans and police. Researchers will find a wealth of resources from the African American Police League, including annual reports, court files, meeting minutes, correspondence, clippings, topical files, newsletters, police brutality files, and publications and flyers covering the work of the AAPL and its education and action arm, the League to Improve the Community. The collection also contains items on numerous law enforcement and civil rights organizations across the country; materials on the suspension of AAPL executive director Renault Robinson from the Chicago Police Department and related lawsuits; and materials pertaining to the National Black Police Association.

HeinOnline Academic is a premier legal research platform containing more than 190 million pages and 295,000 titles of historical and government documents in a fully searchable, image-based format. Includes 39 separate database collections including: Law Journal Library; American Enterprise Institute; Bremer-Kovacs Collection; Brenan Center for Justice Publications at NYU School of Law; Business and Legal Aspects of Sports and Entertainment; Civil Rights and Social Justice; Code of Federal Regulations; COVID-19: Pandemics Past and Present; Criminal Justice & Criminology; Executive Privilege; Federal Register Library; Foreign Relations of the U.S.; GWO Reports and Comptroller General Decisions; Gun Regulation and Legislation in America; History of International Law; History of Supreme Court Nominations; Immigration Law & Policy in the U.S.; John F. Kennedy Assassination Collection; Law Academy Project; Legal Classics; Military and Government; American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy; Open Society Justice Initiative; Pentagon Papers; Religion and the Law; Reports of U.S. Presidential Commissions and Other Advisory Bodies; Slavery in America and the World; U.S. Code; U.S. Congressional Documents; U.S. Congressional Serial Set; U.S. Federal Agency Documents, Decisions, and Appeals; U.S. Federal Legislative History Library; U.S. Presidential Impeachment Library; U.S. Presidential Library; U.S. Statutes at Large; U.S. Supreme Court Library; U.S. Treaties and Agreements Library; Women and the Law; and World Constitutions Illustrated.

This collection of newspapers is available via Readex. Provides online access to more than 350 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. Coverage spans life in the Antebellum South, the spread of abolitionism, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Jim Crow Era, the Great Migration, the rise of the NAACP, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, and more. Search by dates and eras, newspaper titles, place of publication, and article types (e.g. news/opinion, birth notices, letters, etc.).

This database is available via Readex. Newspapers from all 50 states from the late 17th up to early 20th centuries. Search by dates and eras, article types (e.g. news/opinion, birth notices, etc.), place of publication.

19th Century U.S. Newspapers is a full-text searchable, facsimile-image digital collection of over 400 U.S. newspapers from 1800-1900. Every aspect of society and every region of the nation is found in the collection, from rural and urban, large cities and small towns, coast to coast and beyond. Major newspapers stand alongside those published by African Americans, Native Americans, womens rights groups, labor groups, the Confederacy, and more. Particular emphasis is placed on major historical events such as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life. Also included are illustrated papers that bring the nineteenth century to life through the drawings of many artists.

A full-text collection of newspapers, magazines, and journals from underrepresented and independent presses. This database includes publications that highlight diverse cultural perspectives, social issues, and community voices. Content is available in both English and Spanish and features a timeline of key historical events.

Indexes older issues of over 375 magazines and journals, such as Business Week (1929-1982), Good Housekeeping (1916-1982), and National Geographic (1888-1982). Limited to 2 simultaneous users.

Indexes over 400 of the most popular magazines and journals published in the United States and Canada, with about full text for half of them. Particularly useful for locating magazines dealing with popular culture, such as fashion, current events, home and garden, entertainment, consumer information, and sports.

This database is similar to AP Images available on the EBSCO platform. This mobile friendly version is available via the Associated Press platform. It contains millions of photos, graphics, text, and audio clips from the worldwide Associated Press (AP) newswire service. In addition to current news images (updated hourly, real-time), it includes historical photos back to the 1800s, and audio clips back to the early 1900s. All material is copyright owned by AP, but available from this database for educational use. Useful for finding images on any topic (people, nature, politics, business, sports, entertainment, etc.) to use in presentations.

Provides access to many major U.S. and international newspapers, including local titles (LA Times, Orange County Register) and national titles.

Academic Video Online is the most comprehensive video subscription available to libraries. It delivers almost 70,000 titles spanning the widest range of subject areas including anthropology, business, counseling, film, health, history, music, and more.

Database available via ARTstor. Digital images of works of art with accompanying information including size and ownership. Includes over one million images in the areas of art, architecture, and the humanities. Technical requirements http://www.artstor.org/using-artstor/u-html/requirements.shtml NOTE 1: Pop-up blocking software must be disabled. NOTE 2: Requires Flash 6 or higher.

Now part of MUSIC ONLINE. An international database of traditional and historical music recordings from across the world which can be searched by country, cultural group, artist, instrument, genre, and more. Highlights of the collection are in folk, jazz, blues, bluegrass, and old time country music as well as musical traditions from Africa, the Americas, and Asia. For current music see the complementary database, 'Contemporary World Music.' It is possible to create individual playlists or course folders for entire classes.