Library: History: African American

African American History Research Databases

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Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This link opens in a new window Free resource that brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Includes hundreds of pamphlets and books written about slavery—defending it, attacking it or simply analyzing it. In addition, includes every English-language legal commentary on slavery published before 1920, which includes many essays and articles in obscure, hard-to-find journals in the United States and elsewhere.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window Updated regularly. Offers a high-quality, interdisciplinary archive to support scholarship and teaching. Includes archives of over 1,000 leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. The entire corpus is full-text searchable, offers search term highlighting, includes high-quality images, and is interlinked by millions of citations and references.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window Contains over 4,000 in-depth research reports from 1923 to present on the world’s most pressing issues (gay marriage, gun control, Middle East conflicts, etc.) with data, charts, and visuals.
SAGE Journals Online This link opens in a new window An interdisciplinary database that contains over 1,000 full text, online journals in the fields of business, education, health, the humanities, law enforcement, criminology, and other social sciences. Several of these journals are the most authoritative and influential in their fields. Access from 1999-present.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window Search ALL ProQuest databases at once. Covering more than 160 subject areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database and contains a diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos. Encompasses business, science & technology, health, social sciences, arts & humanities, and news.

Multidisciplinary eBook databases:

eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window Multidisciplinary eBooks representing a broad range of subjects.
Ebook Central (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window eBooks on a range of subjects such as business, information technology, education, engineering, health, history, humanities, life & physical sciences, and social and behavioral sciences.

Learn more about finding and downloading eBooks:

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Alexander Street Videos (Black Studies) Search or browse the Black Studies in Video collection

Films On Demand: Master Academic Package This link opens in a new window Full-length streaming videos in the humanities, social sciences, business, health, medicine, sciences, and mathematics fields.
ImageQuest (Britannica) This link opens in a new window Nearly 3 million rights-cleared images from more than 50 collections including Getty Images, the National Portrait Gallery of London, and the National Geographic Society.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Specialized reference eBooks for background information on all subjects, including audio, video, and image results.

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Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Specialized reference eBooks for background information on all subjects, including audio, video, and image results.
Britannica Academic This link opens in a new window The largest, most authoritative encyclopedia in the world, this database contains articles, maps, images, videos, and yearbooks from 1993 to present. Use it instead of Wikipedia for your research!
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window More than 50 reference eBooks in business, communications, history, law, literature, medicine, nation & world, science, and technology.

OneSearch

Find articles, eBooks, etc.

Using Google Scholar: Finding Peer Reviewed Resources (Transcript)

Selected Resources

Journal of African American History "Articles, documents, and notes and comments on all aspects of negro history published by the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History Inc."
Journal of African American Studies "The Journal of African American Studies examines topics concerning social transformations that impact the life chances of continental Africans and the African diaspora. It publishes original research on issues of professional and disciplinary concern for the social progress of people of African descent."
Journal of Negro History Available from 1916-2001.
Journal of Black Studies "Journal of Black Studies (JBS), peer-reviewed and published bi-monthly, for the last third of a century has been the leading source for dynamic, innovative, and creative research on the Black experience. Poised to remain at the forefront of the recent explosive growth in quality scholarship in the field of Black studies, JBS offers important and intellectually provocative articles exploring key issues facing African Americans."
Afro-Americans in New York Life & History Peer-reviewed journal

African American Mosaic From the Library of Congress, contains primary sources, such as maps, photos & diaries on the African American experience.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States: A Selection of Primary Sources Primary source documents, historical newspaper articles, pamphlets, diaries, correspondence and more from specific time periods in history marked by the opposition African Americans have faced on the road to freedom.
Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Explore history from America's libraries and museums by place or date.
Digital Schomburg Provides access to trusted information, interpretation, and scholarship on the global black experience [not just American].
Documenting the American South Primary resources for the study of southern history, literature and culture, including text, images and audio files
SlaveVoyages Information on over 35,000 slaving voyages between the 16th & 19th centuries of over 10 million Africans. Read articles, export data, view images, and more.
Umbra: Search African American History Search hundreds of thousands of items from U.S. archives, libraries and museums.

Check out the HIS325 course guide for help with that class!

HIS325: African American History
by Melissa Chim Last Updated Mar 10, 2025 8 views this year

Background Information

Granger. (1942). WWII: Tuskegee airmen [Photograph].

Abolitionism Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
African Americans Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Black Power Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Civil Rights Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Emancipation Proclamation Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!
Jim Crow Laws A topic page from Credo Reference
Reconstruction A topic page from Credo Reference
Slavery Topic pages contain background information in many formats. It also pulls in resources from other Excelsior Library databases, making it a one-stop place to brush up on your topic!