Afro American Studies
A general guide to library research in Afro American Studies.
Librarian for Afro American Studies
Isabel Espinal
Contact:
W.E.B. Du Bois Library
University of Massachusetts
Office hours Wednesdays 3-4:30, room 325, New Africa house. Also available by appointment. I can meet via phone, Zoom, or other online venue. To request an online appointment or get any other help, please email iespinal@library.umass.edu or call:
University of Massachusetts
Office hours Wednesdays 3-4:30, room 325, New Africa house. Also available by appointment. I can meet via phone, Zoom, or other online venue. To request an online appointment or get any other help, please email iespinal@library.umass.edu or call:
413-545-6971
Website
Researching the Civil Rights Movement
Library Guide for Afro Am 236:
HISTORY OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Spotlight on Music Online: American Song
Music Online: American Song is a database that allows people to hear and feel the music from America's past. The database includes songs of the Civil Rights Movement. Go to section of database on "Historical Events."
Music, such as:
Speeches (some include music), such as:
Secondary Sources
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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Scholarly journals from all academic disciplines - an excellent starting point for multidisciplinary research projects. 3,200 full-text journals. Coverage from 1975 to present. - America: History & Life This link opens in a new window
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Journal articles, dissertations, and book reviews, many in full text, relating to United States and Canadian history and prehistory, 1954-present. - Black Studies Center This link opens in a new window
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Combines key indices (Schomburg, IIBP, etc) to scholarship and primary sources in Afro-American studies. - JSTOR This link opens in a new window
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Core scholarly journals from a range of disciplines, dating from the earliest issue of each journal to a few years before present. - Web of Science This link opens in a new window
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Index to articles from peer-reviewed journals in all disciplines.Search by cited reference, topic, author, and more. Arts and Humanities covers 1975-present; Social Sciences 1900-present; and Science 1900-present.
Finding Books
To find books at UMass
Start with the Discovery Search, the general search box on the library home page, www.library.umass.edu.
This search gives you access to books and articles and more.
Citations can be exported directly to Zotero or other citation managers.
Spotlight on Black Panther Party newspaper
From the database Black Thought and Culture
Primary Sources
- Civil Rights Digital Library - primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale. The CRDL features a collection of unedited news film from the WSB (Atlanta) and WALB (Albany, Ga.) television archives held by the Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries. The CRDL provides educator resources and contextual materials, including Freedom on Film, relating instructive stories and discussion questions from the Civil Rights Movement in Georgia, and the New Georgia Encyclopedia, delivering engaging online articles and multimedia.
- Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century This link opens in a new window
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Features records of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and federal records on the Black Freedom Struggle. - Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new window
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Collection of monographs, essays, articles, speeches, and interviews written by leaders within the African American community from 1700s to 1975. - Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window
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Statistics gathered by the Census Bureau, with scholarly editing and essays, from colonial times to near present. - Women and Social Movements in the United States 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
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Primary and secondary sources on women's involvement in historical events in the United States. Includes books, pamphlets, papers, and articles.
Music
- American Music This link opens in a new window
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68,000 tracks of historical recordings of jazz, blues, gospel and other genres, 1890's-1970's.
Newspapers and Magazines
Black newspapers and magazines
- Black Panther newspaper(Via the database Black Thought and Culture) The Black Panther was the official newspaper for the Black Panther Party. It was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1967 and ran through 1980 printing 537 issues. The newspaper distributed information about the party's activities and the ideologies of the Black Panther Party, focusing on both international revolutions as inspiration and contemporary racial struggles of African Americans across the United States. In its later years, it served as a platform to rally support for members of the party who became political prisoners.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
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Full-text articles from newspapers, magazines and journals of ethnic communities in the United States. In several languages, 1965-present. - Historical Newspaper: Atlanta Daily World This link opens in a new window
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Full-text of black newspaper, with coverage from 1931-2010. - Historical Newspaper: Baltimore Afro-American This link opens in a new window
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Full-text of black newspaper, with coverage from 1893-2010. - Historical Newspaper: Chicago Defender This link opens in a new window
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Full-text of black weekly newspaper, with coverage from 1909-2010. - Historical Newspaper: Cleveland Call & Post This link opens in a new window
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Full-text of black newspaper under all its title variants, with coverage from 1934-2010. - Historical Newspaper: New York Amsterdam News This link opens in a new window
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Newspaper of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond, 1922-2010. - Historical Newspaper: Pittsburgh Courier This link opens in a new window
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One of the leading newspapers of the African American community in the U.S., with coverage from 1911-2010.
Other newspapers and magazines
- Historical Newspaper: New York Times This link opens in a new window
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Full-text of The New York Times, with coverage from 1851 to three years ago. - Historical Newspaper: Boston Globe This link opens in a new window
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Massachusetts' newspaper of record, 1872-1991. Additional content is added yearly.
Users must limit their search to "full text" on the left side of the screen to make sure they only get results that include the Full Text. Without the limiter, the "abstracts" will be indexed as well. - Readers' Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
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Citations and abstracts for articles from popular periodicals from the U.S. and Canada, 1890-1982.
Film and Video
- HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
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The HistoryMakers is a national 501 (c)(3) non-profit video oral history archive headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The HistoryMakers is dedicated to preserving African American history as the missing link in American history. Focused on American history, oral history and education in general and more specifically on African American history, education, music, law, the arts, science, technology, media, medicine, entertainment, fashion & beauty, business, the military, politics and sports, The History Makers is a combination archive, library, museum, stock footage collection, on-line educator and educational PBS/TV programming. Its topics include but are not limited to African American organizations and associations, slavery, reconstruction, the labor movement, the civil rights movement and black authors." - Kanopy This link opens in a new window
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Six-thousand videos from the World's leading producers - designed to support university teaching and research.
Spotlight on Historical Pittsburgh Courier
Citation Management
Use a citation manager, such as Zotero to keep track of your research.
Put all your references in one place, create quick and easy bibliographies, build your knowledgebase for the rest of your career. For help, check out the online guides and webinars or Ask a Librarian.
Some tips on using Chicago notation style with Zotero.
Tips for Databases
- From off-campus locations, an IT Computer Account is required to access licensed databases.
- After you've run a search, use the
button (if the database has it) to retrieve articles or to be taken directly to Interlibrary Loan, so you can order the article if UMass does not have it.
