HIS 180: African American History: 1865 to Present: Find Primary Sources

"Chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience, African American Newspapers, Series 1, features 280 newspapers from 35 states, including many rare and historically significant 19th-century titles. These titles published for or by African Americans constitute valuable primary sources for researchers exploring such diverse disciplines as cultural, literary and social history; ethnic studies and more. Beginning with Freedom’s Journal (NY)—the first African American newspaper published in the United States—the titles in this groundbreaking series include The Colored Citizen (KS), Arkansas State Press, Rights of All (NY), Wisconsin Afro-American, New York Age, L'Union (LA), Northern Star and Freeman’s Advocate (NY), Richmond Planet, Cleveland Gazette, The Appeal (MN) and hundreds of others."

Find here complimentary access to a selection of about 1,600 documents from modules in the "Black Freedom" series (History Vault). Documents cover the colonial, antebellum, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and Contemporary (1976-2000s) eras. Please note that this is not the paid product formerly licensed by the library titled Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records. The paid product includes FBI Files on Martin Luther King Jr., for example, only a small selection of which is available here.

(1851-2008) Provides full text access to the New York Times up to three years ago. Historical New York Times provides information on a wide variety of topics including national and international news, biographies, social and economic issues, the arts, literature, music, the sciences, business, and much more. The database may be searched by author, dates, keywords, and title. Editorials, reviews, obituaries, photos, illustrations, and ads are included. Individual articles or the whole page may be viewed.

International in scope, this title contains primary source materials from the 19th, 20th, and 21st Centuries. Broad topics include the development of human rights, slavery and genocide, imprisonment, health and housing, labor and working conditions, civil and political rights, and others. Also included are a chronology and a bibliography.

Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice — “Designed for teaching and research, this resource brings together [primary] documents from libraries and archives across the Atlantic World, covering an extensive time period from 1490” (database homepage).
Highlights include: African forts and the Gold Coast; Materials on Brazil; Education and social justice; Family Papers, Correspondence, Bills and Plantation Journals; Local court records relating to slavery; Resistance and Revolts; Testimony of enslaved people; Slavery in the Early Americas; Songs that recall the Transatlantic Slave Experience; Urban Slavery in New York and Philadelphia; The Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania; Zanzibar and the Indian Ocean Slave Trade

"This documentary website tells the story of how young activists in SNCC united with local people in the Deep South to build a grassroots movement for change that empowered the Black community and transformed the nation."