Afro American Studies  Tags: afro_american african_american black_studies  

Reference Sources

Reference materials are a great way to start your research. Most of these sources are located in the Reference Department's collection in the Learning Commons of the Du Bois Library (one flight down from the entry level).

• African American Writers Ref. PS153.N5 A344 2001
• Africana: the Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience Ref DT14 .A37435 2005
• Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940 Ref PN451 .D5 v. 51
• Black American Poets and Dramatists of the Harlem Renaissance Ref PS153.N5 B5335 1995
• Black American Prose Writers of the Harlem Renaissance Ref PS366.A35 B58 1994
• Black American Writers: Bibliographical Essays Ref PS153 .N5 B55
• Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History Ref E185 .E542 2001
• Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance Ref NX512.3.A35 E53 2004 (Table of Contents is online).
• Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies of 100 Black Women Writers, 1900-1945 Ref PS153.N5 R65 1990
• Who's Who in African-American History Ref E185.96 .W46 1994
  
• See also Afro American Studies Reference Materials and English Reference Materials for even more reference sources.

Finding Books

• To search the UMass Library Catalog, click HERE. Use the broad categories below to browse for sub-topics or to limit (by date, words in subject or words in title) for more focussed results.
  • Use a Subject search to find books about an author or person (last name first). For example:
    • Cullen, Countee
    • Dunbar, Paul Laurence
    • Fauset, Jessie Redmon
    • Hughes, Langston
    • Hurston, Zora Neale
    • Larsen, Nella
    • Locke, Alain Leroy
    • McKay, Claude
    • Toomer, Jean
  • Use an Author search to find books written by an author or performer. For example:
    • Cullen, Countee
    • Dunbar, Paul Laurence
    • Fauset, Jessie Redmon
    • Hughes, Langston
    • Hurston, Zora Neale
    • Larsen, Nella
    • Locke, Alain Leroy
    • McKay, Claude
    • Toomer, Jean
• Net Library - online books. Sample titles:
  • The Harlem Renaissance: An Annotated Reference Guide for Student Research
• WorldCat and Other Library Catalogs for searching other catalogs.

Audio/Visual

Videos

These are just a few examples of videos about African American literature. They are located on the 3rd floor.

• Africa to America to Paris: the Migration of Black Writers UM/Media V 1727 (VHS)
• Alice Walker and The Color Purple UM/Media DVD 84
• Ralph Ellison: an American Journey UM/Media DVD 557

Journals (for browsing)

• African American Review (both in the Library and online)
• Black Issues Book Review (both in the Library and online)
• The Black Scholar (both in the Library and online)
• Callaloo - A Journal of African American and African Arts and Letters (both in the Library and online)
• The Crisis 1910-1996 Per E185.5 .C92 (some missing issues; 1996-2003 changed name to The New Crisis; 2003-present changed back to The Crisis; recent years are online)
• The Griot Per E185.5 .G75
• Journal of Black Studies (both in the Library and online)
• The Langston Hughes Review: Official Publication of the Langston Hughes Society Per PS3515 .U274 Z673
• MELUS; Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (both in the Library and online)
• See also Journals and Periodicals for Afro American Studies webpage

Databases (journal indexing and online journals for searching)

• Academic Search Premier (includes full-text journal articles) - Good for scholarly journal articles.
• African American Biographical Database
• African American Song - Audio database which documents African American music, including jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, and narratives. Browse by category of music, region, genre, instrument, artist, ensemble, and time period. A playlist option is available.
• Black Thought and Culture - Contains 619 sources with 246 authors which includes the nonfiction published works of leading African Americans. Includes many writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
• Biography Resource Center
• Book Review Digest
• Ethnic Newswatch - Full-text articles from the newspapers, magazines and journals of ethnic communities in the United States.
• Expanded Academic Index (includes full text) - Good for academic book reviews.
• International Index to Black Periodicals - Indexing and abstracting of 150 African, American and Caribbean periodicals, with full text of forty core journals.
• Literature Resource Center - A large collection of literature reference material. Great place to start.
• JSTOR (full text) - Good for scholarly journal articles.
• MLA International Bibliography - For literature research.
  

Internet Resources

• African American Women Writers of the 19th Century
  A digital collection of some 52 published works by 19th-century black women writers. A part of the Digital Schomburg collection.

• Classic African American Literature
  Links to full text of classic African American writings.

• WRITING BLACK
  Links to literature and history written by and on African Americans.

• PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide - An Ongoing Project © Paul P. Reuben Chapter 9: Harlem Renaissance - A Brief Introduction
  Includes important features, personalities, an assessment, a chronology of important events, novels of the Harlem Renaissance, research and study topics.

• See also Afro American Studies Internet Links and English Internet Links pages.

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Prepared for Afro American Studies 188 Spring 2006 Professor A. Yemisi Jimoh
Library guide by Isabel Espinal, Afro American Studies Librarian